Districts 23 & 25
By a 5-4 vote the majority ruled that:
- Old district 23 was a qualified protected majority-minority Latino district (indeed in 2002 on the verge of throwing out the incumbent that wasn't of their choice).
- Although new district 23 still had an overall Latino majority, only 46% of new district 23's citizen voting-age population was Latino due to 100,000 Latinos being moved to neighboring district 28. Therefore, new district 23 was in no way, shape or form a qualifying majority-minority district.
- New district 25 wasn't compact enough to be considered a qualifying replacement majority-minority Latino district. The two Latino communities within new district 25 were more than 300 miles apart, raising the appearance that the district was drawn to pick up as many Latinos as possible without regard to compactness.
- And therefore new District 23 is a section 2 violation of the Voting Rights Act and must be redrawn.
- There is no need to rule on whether or not new district 25 is itself a racial gerrymander in violation of section 2 because the changes to district 23 will of necessity affect district 25 and it is therefore moot. However, the lower court decision that it was not in violation of section 2 is vacated.
- The case is remanded for further proceedings.
Read more about this topic: League Of United Latin American Citizens V. Perry
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