AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas for the second time in a month, this time over Republican-approved redistricting maps.

The DOJ filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the maps the state legislature approved in October claiming they do not recognize the Latino population growth in the state and are in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

“The Legislature refused to recognize the State’s growing minority electorate,” the lawsuit states. “Although the Texas Congressional delegation expanded from 36 to 38 seats, Texas designed the two new seats to have Anglo voting majorities.”

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said the complaint also alleges several of the redrawn districts were constructed with discriminatory practices and through a rushed process with minimal opportunity for public comment or expert testimony.

According to the 2020 Census, the state gained approximately 4 million new residents during the past decade, almost all of which is attributed to minority population increases. That explosive growth led the state to also gain two new congressional seats.

Gupta said despite the growth in minority populations, Texas designed both of those new seats to have white voting majorities.

“Decade after decade, courts have found that Texas has enacted redistricting plans that deliberately dilute the voting strength of Latino and Black voters and that violates the Voting Rights Act,” Gupta said. “The Attorney General has made clear that the Justice Department will not stand idly by in the face of unlawful attempts to restrict access to the ballot.”

In September, the Justice Department released a set of redistricting guidelines, warning states and local governments against diluting the voting power of minority communities in their redistricting maps.

This is the first redistricting cycle following the end of the DOJ’s preclearance authority that allowed it to give the OK to election law changes in jurisdictions that have a history of discriminatory voting practices against minority voters.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland pleaded with congressional leaders to reinstate the preclearance authority.

“Were that preclearance tool still in place, we would likely not be here today announcing this complaint,” Garland said.

In a response to the lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted “I’m certain Texas will prevail!”

This is the second voting rights-related lawsuit the DOJ has filed against Texas this year. In an earlier lawsuit, the DOJ challenged the state’s new restrictive voting measures which ban 24-hour and drive-thru voting, impose new hurdles on mail-in ballots and empower partisan poll watchers. Those rules were signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September.

The DOJ and Texas are also awaiting an opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court on Texas’s Senate Bill 8, a controversial abortion ban that makes it illegal for pregnant individuals to receive an abortion after six weeks. The case went before the Supreme Court on Nov. 1.