Brewer Storefront filed suit in federal court on April 16, 2019, on behalf of plaintiff Suresh Kumar against the Frisco Independent School District (FISD) and its trustees, alleging that the school district’s election system violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it denies fair representation to voters of color.
Filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, the lawsuit claims that the school district’s at-large voting system denies Asian, Hispanic and African American voters a fair opportunity to elect school board representatives of their choice. The Storefront is the community service legal affiliate of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors.
Based on the district’s demographics, one would expect that an Asian, Latino, or African American school board member could be elected. Yet, all the school board trustees are white. Five Asian candidates and two Hispanic candidates have run unsuccessfully for the FISD board over the past four years. All seven of the candidates of color lost to a white opponent in those FISD board elections.
“Our client believes that this racially polarized suburban school district must adopt an electoral system that enables the participation of all voters,” says William A. Brewer III, partner at Brewer Storefront and lead counsel for plaintiff Suresh Kumar. “The history of candidates of color running for the board and losing is dramatic support of our client’s belief that the voting scheme utilized by Frisco ISD unfairly denies people of color a fair opportunity to elect candidates of their choosing.”
Under the current electoral system, FISD’s seven school board members are elected at large. Candidates run for specific places but do not represent a specific geographic area. The lawsuit claims the at-large system allows white voters to vote as a bloc and deny political opportunity to voters of color.
Media outlets including The Dallas Morning News, Community Impact and Frisco Enterprise reported on the lawsuit.
