Voters should be able to elect leaders that best serve their communities. In Washington state’s Yakima Valley, Campaign Legal Center and our clients and co-counsel have been fighting for fair maps for Latino voters since 2022.
Once again, voters have successfully defended their right to fair representation in state government.
How did we get here?
In January 2022, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), alongside co-counsel MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), the UCLA Voting Rights Project, and attorney Edwardo Morfin of the Morfin Law Firm in Washington, sued on behalf of individual Latino voters in the area, arguing that district 15 in Washington’s state legislative map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
A federal judge ruled in our favor, agreeing that the map violated Section 2 because the challenged district diluted the voting strength of Latino voters.
Because of the ruling, a new, remedial district was drawn to give the Yakima Valley region’s fast-growing Latino population an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
As a result, Latino voters in Yakima Valley had in equal voice in state legislative elections for the first time in decades in the 2024 state legislative elections.
However, following the court’s decisions finding a violation of Section 2 of the VRA and ordering the remedial district into place, intervenors appealed to the Ninth Circuit in an attempt to get the fair district overturned.
The Ninth Circuit found that the intervenors could not challenge the district court’s liability ruling and affirmed that the new remedial district put in place to address the Section 2 VRA violation complies with federal law.
Victory for Latino Voters in Washington
The Ninth Circuit’s decision, which keeps in place the district court’s ruling and the new, fair district, is a victory for Latino voters in the Yakima Valley because it ensures that all voters in the region have an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
Despite efforts to revert back to a discriminatory map, Yakima Valley’s Latino voters will still have a fair chance to elect state legislators who best serve their community.
Support our work as we fight alongside voters all across the country for fair maps.