Several organizations have filed a motion in federal court asking for a preliminary injunction to stop Texas lawmakers from redrawing Congressional boundaries. A Texas House committee voted to advance maps Monday night.
The National Redistricting Foundation; League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC; and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, known as MALDEF filed the complaint.
The complaint asks a judge for an expedited hearing on planned requests for injunctions.
"The map is egregiously unconstitutional, and its implementation must be immediately enjoined," the complaint reads.
The organizations that filed the complaint say they want to move the process quickly to ensure the case is decided before the 2026 elections "including time for emergency Supreme Court review as needed."
The National Redistricting Foundation was launched in 2017 to "develop more fair electoral maps while ensuring that state legislatures adhere to the tenets of the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act."
The group's executive director says redistricting has drawn bipartisan opposition in Texas, and the current plan would eliminate minority opportunity districts.
"In other words, the legislature is grafting a new, more extreme gerrymander onto an existing gerrymander that adds even more insult to injury for communities of color in the Lone Star State, despite the fact that they make up 60 percent of the state population. Should Governor Abbott sign the new gerrymander into law, the NRF will quickly challenge that map in federal court, and the court must be prepared to act swiftly to intervene and protect the rights of Texans," Marina Jenkins wrote in a statement.
Neither Abbott's office nor the Texas attorney general's office had responded Tuesday afternoon.