2003 Redistricting
Bonilla was priming for a rematch against Cuellar in 2004, but in 2003, a controversial mid-decade redistricting by the Texas legislature, the results of efforts by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, moved most of Laredo, which had been one of the cores of the 23rd since its formation, to the 28th district. In its place, Bonilla received several heavily Republican San Antonio suburbs that had previously been in the nearby 21st District, all but assuring him of a seventh term. Meanwhile, Cuellar entered and won the 2004 primary against the 28th's incumbent Democrat Ciro Rodriguez and then went on to win the general election.
Bonilla contributed money from his American Dream PAC to the redistricting effort.
Soon after the 2004 election, Bonilla was criticized when he proposed a procedural rule change that would permit House leaders to retain their leadership positions despite having been indicted by a state grand jury. The proposal would have allowed Tom DeLay to remain as Majority Leader despite having been indicted by the Travis County district attorney's office for possible campaign finance violations. Many constituents believed that Bonilla was blatantly repaying a political favor to DeLay for having favorably redrawn the 23rd District.
On June 29, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Anthony Kennedy taking the lead, ruled in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry that Bonilla's district violated the Civil Rights Act, though the justices upheld most of the 2003 redistricting. The Court declared that the Texas legislature violated the rights of Latino voters when it cut most of Laredo out of the 23rd. Even though the reconfigured 23rd was still 55 percent Latino, only 46 percent of the district's voting-age population was Latino. The justices held that as a result, the new district didn't have enough Latinos to pass muster under the Voting Rights Act. Since the legislature hadn't created an acceptable majority-Latino district (its intended replacement, the Austin-to-McAllen 25th, was not considered compact enough), the reconfigured 23rd had to be struck down as well. Because of the size of the 23rd, the ruling effectively forced the redrawing of nearly every district from El Paso to San Antonio. Precedent dictated that a new map had to be issued before the November elections.
The court issued the new lines on August 7. It moved all of Laredo out of the 23rd and into the 28th, but nevertheless made the district much friendlier to Democrats by boosting its Latino population to 65 percent. In particular, Bonilla received several portions of heavily Democratic south San Antonio (where he'd grown up) while losing many of the strongly Republican areas he had inherited in the 2003 redistricting. The court also ordered an all-party primary on Election Day, with a December runoff if no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote. The new map included Rodriguez' home and much of his former base, and he announced that he would run against Bonilla in November.
Federal Elections Commission records show Bonilla paid the Los Angeles-based law firm of Latham & Watkins $100,000 in 2006, from his campaign funds, to argue that the district boundaries were constitutional. In February, the firm filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in support of the redistricting plan.
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