The Texas Legislative Council is a nonpartisan legislative agency that provides professional and technical service and support to the Texas Legislature and the legislative agencies. Legislative Council redistricting records illustrate the assistance provided by the council's Research Division to the legislature during its redistricting process and include plans, maps, analyses, statistics, reports, proposals, correspondence, memorandums, notes, and lists, 1981-1982, 1991-2006, bulk 2001-2006. The majority of the records document the redistricting cycle following the 2000 U.S. Census, though the 1990s cycle is also represented, and to a lesser extent, the 1980s cycle. Some 1990s plan histories are included, tracing the evolution of the plan through the legislature, state and federal district courts, the U.S. Department of Justice, and occasionally the U.S. Supreme Court. The regular session of the 77th Legislature adjourned on May 28, 2001, without adopting a senate, house, congressional, or State Board of Education redistricting plan. In November 2001, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas put in place new house and congressional plans, and it upheld the senate plan put forward by the Texas Legislative Redistricting Board. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued an order adopting new State Board of Education districts, also in November 2001. The federal district court later ordered changes to five congressional districts to address a Voting Rights Act violation, and the changes were incorporated into a new statewide plan in 2006. These Legislative Council redistricting records reflect the stages each type of plan went through as the legislature, Legislative Redistricting Board, and the courts attempted to produce fair and legal plans that equalize population among electoral districts. To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.
