The 2003 Texas redistricting refers to a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting plan. In the 2004 elections, it resulted in the Republicans' taking a majority of the House seats for the first time since Reconstruction, by a 21 to 11 margin, or a 2 to 1 ratio. This was disproportional to the voting breakdown in the state in the presidential election, in which there was a 61/38 voting ratio of Republicans to Democrats. Opponents challenged the plan in three suits, combined when the case went to the United States Supreme Court in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry.
On June 28, 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the statewide redistricting as constitutional, with the exception of Texas' 23rd congressional district, which it held was racially gerrymandered in violation of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, apparently to try to protect a Hispanic Republican representative. This district had to be redrawn in a plan with oversight by the court. When completed, a special election was held for the representative of the new district; the Democrat Ciro Rodriguez won the seat.
Read more about 2003 Texas Redistricting: Overview, 2000–2003 Evolution and DeLay's Role, Justice Department Involvement, Criticism of The Plan, 2006 Supreme Court Review, Redistricting Targeted Democrats
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“Worn down by the hoofs of millions of half-wild Texas cattle driven along it to the railheads in Kansas, the trail was a bare, brown, dusty strip hundreds of miles long, lined with the bleaching bones of longhorns and cow ponies. Here and there a broken-down chuck wagon or a small mound marking the grave of some cowhand buried by his partners “on the lone prairie” gave evidence to the hardships of the journey.”
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