Supreme Court rules 7-2 in LULAC v. Perry that Texas CD-23 violates the Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on June 28, 2006, that Texas Congressional District 23 violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting Latino voting power to protect Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla. Justice Kennedy wrote that Texas split the district's Latino majority to keep Bonilla's margin safe, reducing Latino voting-age population while adding Anglo voters. The Court upheld the rest of the 2003 DeLay map 5-4 but required Texas to create a new majority-Latino district, resulting in a special election that flipped CD-23 to Democrat Ciro Rodriguez.