The Supreme Court unanimously voted Monday that states may continue to uphold the long-held “one person, one vote” rule when drawing state legislative districts.
Had the appellants won the case, political power in Texas would have deviated from urban, younger and overall Democratic areas in favor of rural, older, whiter and more Republican districts. This also would have significantly impacted the Latino community, which makes up more than half of Texas’s total population.
In Evenwel v. Abbott, all eight justices concluded that “a State may draw its legislative districts based on total population,” according to the opinion of the court written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Six of the justices joined Justice Ginsburg’s opinion. The remaining two, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, wrote separate but concurring opinions of their own.
