For Immediate Release

September 3, 2021

Contact: Oliver Bernstein, 512.289.8618

Faith-based powerhouse Texas Impact joins lawsuit challenging restrictive voting legislation

AUSTIN, TEX. — One of the leading advocacy groups representing Texans of faith — Texas Impact — has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court as part of a powerful set of plaintiffs challenging the new discriminatory voting bill (Senate Bill 1).

The unconstitutional legislation awaiting Governor Abbott’s signature would make it harder for Texans, particularly voters of color and voters with disabilities, to cast their ballots. In clear violation of federal voting rights law, the controversial bill would reduce access to the ballot box.

“Texas Impact is suing the state of Texas because we have exhausted all other options to protect voting rights,” said Bee Moorhead, Executive Director of Texas Impact. “Faith communities have prayed, protested, preached, and pushed, but at the end of the day, lawmakers have chosen a path that will lead to disenfranchisement.”

MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, and the law firms of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in Dallas filed the challenge today in U.S. District Court in San Antonio.

“Texas faith communities are part of the bedrock of our state,” Moorhead added. “It’s our responsibility to amplify the voices of Texans of faith to protect voting rights in our communities.”

The lawsuit follows a summer of advocacy that included over 400 people attending the “Let My People Vote!” rally at the Texas Capitol in July.

“People of faith marched for the Voting Rights Act, marched for the 19th Amendment, marched for the 15th Amendment, and marched against King George III,” said Texas Impact Advocacy Director Joshua Houston. “Now we’re marching to federal court to ensure that ‘a government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.’”

Texas Impact is proud to join with fellow plaintiffs including: the Anti-Defamation League Austin, Southwest, and Texoma Regions; FIEL Houston; Friendship-West Baptist Church; Harris County Election Administrator Isabel Longoria; Jolt Action; James Lewin, an election judge; La Unión Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE); Mexican American Bar Association of Texas; Southwest Voter Registration Education Project; Texas HOPE; and William C. Velasquez Institute.

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