the crook got away with it: SCOTUS upholds most of redistricting

[johncoby2]

he Supreme Court, splintering widely, on Wednesday found an insufficient claim of partisan gerrymandering in the Texas congressional redistricting. It also rejected a challenge to mid-decade congressional redistricting. It did not rule on whether all partisan gerrymander claims are beyond judicial review. The Court is split on that issue, and the division remains. It found the new District 24 invalid under the federal Voting Rights Act.

This was one of three rulings. The Court has two more decisions remaining, and those could be announced tomorrow or Friday.

Here is a key paragraph in Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's plurality opinion in the Texas redistricting case: "In sum, we disagree with appellants' view that a legislature's decision to override a valid, court-drawn plan mid-decade is sufficiently suspect to give shape to a reliable standard for identifying unconstiutitonal political gerrymanders. We conclude that appellants have established no legally iimpermissible use of political classifications. For this reason, they state no claim on which relief may be grantged for their statewide challenge."

http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/

[WestHoustonDem]

1. Crap n/t

[redqueen]

2. Well that's strange... I just got this:

"Supreme Court Rejects Part Of Texas Political Map The Supreme Court says some of the new congressional map boundaries engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay failed to protect minority voting rights."

:shrug:

[NoPasaran]

3. Can someone comment on CD-24?

Beyond Kenny Marchant :puke:

[redqueen]

4. I wonder if that's the district referred to here:

"At issue was the shifting of 100,000 Hispanics out of a district represented by a Republican incumbent and into a new, oddly shaped district. Foes of the plan had argued that that was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights. "

[PDittie]

5. CD-24 is in violation

Let's take what we can. What's the remedy? Can we take out Marchant with Gary Page running in a redrawn district?

Gary Page's website, including map of district:

http://www.garyrpage.com/node/5?PHPSESSID=1d042f868aed57e33e9767ed37d4a2f6

[NoPasaran]

9. Another silver lining

Lamar Smith is much more vulnerable to John Courage in the redrawn CD-21 (which includes a big chunk of Austin now) than he was in the old one.

[jobycom]

16. Yes. I'd love to see John beat Lamar Smith. And not just at the polls

but that's another story.

[TXDem24]

25. Unfortunately

the Supreme Court Rejects of the United States (SCROTUS) did not find the intentional gerrymander of District 24 to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act because ...

wait for it ...

the African-American population had voted for a white Democrat since 1978.

Yup. That was the reason. Nothing about the fact that they intentionally chose a white Democrat instead of having an even whiter republican shoved down their throat.

It is time for a tidal change. If the manipulation and corruption of our democratic system hasn't made you angry beyond belief, then drop the meds. We need everybody to be mad as hell about all the things being done in our name.

Fight the "Right". They only think they are.

[PDittie]

26. Ah, welcome to DU

24. :hi:

[muse]

27. Thanks for pointing that out

good grief

We are up against a Supreme Court that will have that kind of thinking for many, many years to come. Thank you, Bush voters.

[WestHoustonDem]

28. Welcome to DU TXDem 24!

:hi:

[texastoast]

29. Hi!

I'm as mad as you-know-what and spending as much time as I can fighting the dirty rotten scoundrels, but I used up my monthly F word allocation here yesterday in one post.

Welcome to DU!!


:toast:

[WolverineDG]

6. What this really means is

if Dems take back the Lege, they get to redraw the map using the same justifications that the Rs did.
:evilgrin:

dg

[redqueen]

7. heheh

my thoughts exactly... gotta take the bad with the good... and then try to use it to your advantage!

and since our goals are to improve conditions for as many people as possible, that would be a huge plus for the people of texas :)

[sonias]

10. That's right baby

And payback is going to be a bitch. We will be retaking this legislature back soon, and they are going to be so screwed. All of our districts are going to be minority drawn. In fact I think we can consolidate the whole TX republican population near the Waste Control Specialists dump site.

Sonia

[Vogon_Glory]

13. Of Course, What The Pugs Will Do Beforehand

Of course, if it looks like the good guys are likely to take over the Texas Legislature, rest assured that the Repugs will send through an amendment to the state constitution mandating that redistricting can only take place once every ten years and forbidding the courts to intervene.

[sonias]

14. They won't have time

Their days in control are numbered. They can only introduce that in the next regular session which begins in 2007. So the next election they can put that before the voters would be the fall of 2007. I think they are going to be plenty busy keeping us away from ringing their scrawny little necks.

And let's not forget we will have Governor Chris Bell in office in 2007 and no way Chris is going to let that bill make it out of the legislature.

Sonia

[Vogon_Glory]

19. From your keyboard to G*d's computer screen! n/t

[WolverineDG]

15. Only the voters can amend the State Constitution

and yes, they won't have time to do that by January.

dg

[Czolgosz]

8. Are you sure they got away with it? I've only seen news bites, but I

understood the Court found District 24 invalid under the federal Voting Rights Act.

If the Court is requiring the reconstitution of District 24 to its old boundaries (which I do not know what remedy the Court is contemplating), this reconstitution process would affect several surrounding districts.

PLEASE, WHENEVER YOU TALK ABOUT THE GERRYMANDERING SCAM, REMIND YOUR LISTENERS THAT CAROLE STRAYHORN WAS THE DECIDING VOTE ON THE LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING BOARD WHICH CHEATED THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS AND VIOLATED THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT!

[sonias]

12. CD23 is the illegal district - Bonilla's district

But that 100,000 voter shift throws more districts in the fray. CD25 for example in Travis all the way to the Rio Grande.

AAS article 6/28
Supreme Court throws out part of Texas congressional map
Doggett's Austin-to-Mexico district must be redrawn
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that parts of the state's congressional map discriminates against minorities, setting in motion a redrawing of political districts that will ripple into Central Texas.

In its decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the 23rd District, which sprawls from San Antonio to West Texas diluted the rights of minority voters and may have to be redrawn. In drawing that district, lawmakers split mostly-Hispanic Laredo in half to help elect a Republican incumbent.

Redrawing that districts will force nearby District 25, the Austin-to-Mexico district held by Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin, to be redrawn, according to the court opinion.

Experts were still poring over the complicated 100-page opinion to determine how Texas will have to remedy the deficiencies.

Like dominoes.

Sonia

[PDittie]

11. Statesman says NOT the 24th, but the

23rd (Bonilla) and 25th (Doggett) will have to be redrawn:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/06/29redistrict.html

[jobycom]

17. Bonilla's district was redrawn because he almost lost to, of all people,

Henry Cuellar. On election night 2002, CNN called the race for Cuellar without any precincts reporting, based only on exit polling and early voting. The early voting was strongly Cuellar. As the precincts began to come in, Cuellar had a huge lead that barely dwindled all evening. With 80% of the precincts reporting, Cuellar was stil leading by (i'm estimating, I don't remember the exact number) around 20%. CNN still called it for Bonilla. Not until over 95% of the precincts had reported did Bonilla finally catch up and overtake Cuellar. He won by a couple of points, just a few thousand votes.

There's no way CNN could have called a race that tight that far in advance based on exit polls, especially when all the numbers the state was reporting showed Cuellar with a huge lead. And it wasn't a minor race, it was one of the closest watched in Texas.

Cuellar went on to steal a primary election from Ciro Rodriquez in 2004, after redistricting. I still think that was his reward for not raising a fuss over the Bonilla race. Cuellar claims to be a Dem, but is a Bush supporter and has talked of switching parties. Cuellar won when a mysterious ballot box was found in a precinct polling station housed inside a bank owned run by a huge Bush supporter (and interestingly, owned by the family of TOny Sanchez, the Texas Dem candidate for governor who most people believed was more Repub than Dem).

Just a little history. Some of my numbers may be off, I'm going from memory, but they are close, and the gist is right.

[PDittie]

18. Lone Star Project folks say four districts affected

CD 21, 23, 25, and 28.

Also, the three-judge panel will have the responsibility of deciding what to do with the redistricting map. The first and most immediate decision is when they redraw the map -- this election or the next (my guess is the boundaries for 2006 will not change). The second decision is whether they will redraw the map themselves -- accepting three maps each from Democrats and Republicans -- or whether they kick it back to the Texas Legislature to redraw the lines during the 80th legislative session starting in January.

I believe I'll focus on what we won: This ruling is a substantial victory for the Voting Rights Act, a victory that puts the Republicans on the spot, since they delayed VRA renewal to see what the SCOTUS did with Texas redistricting.

I don't think it was ever likely they would toss out the entire plan because of political gerrymandering, which the court has for the most approved. Much more interesting is that redistricting can apparently happen any time a state legislature feels like it, which opens a Pandora's Box in the short term for the GOP (in states besides Texas).

Summarizing: we don't know what the relief will be. The three-judge panel could 1) draw its own map; 2) give the Texas Lege a deadline to draw one; 3) let the current districts stand for 2006; 4) move quickly to change them.

Speculation and further decisions to come. Bonilla and Cuellar can be more easily defeated in redrawn districts, but Lamar Smith would be strengthened.

[derby378]

20. Potentially bad news for John Courage

Damn. This ruling is biting us in the ass.

[tammywammy]

21. What I hate

is that right at first, I was happy thinking that something good came from this, and the more I read about it, the suckier things look. :(

[sonias]

22. The real irony is that Smith will gut the VRA if re-elected

So even if CD21 gets drawn to be more republican leaning, we have to do all we can to defeat him this term. Then he won't get the chance. Our best hope is not to have these districts in place for this November.

Sonia

[derby378]

23. Agreed - we cannot lose the VRA no matter what the cost

Keep pulling for Courage, Sonia!

[David Van Os]

24. Have faith in John Courage and his powerful message

Whoa. The voting rights of the Latino citizens of CD 23 have been unlawfully abused and the wrong needs to be remedied as soon as possible. Have faith in John Courage and his powerful message. John is a fighter and he is taking Lamar Smith on to beat him, no matter if the district ends up not looking the same as it does now. John's message is strong and he is delivering it strongly. Our job is to take the fight to the enemy wherever we find them and fight every battle with confidence in the power of our messages and with faith in truth and democracy. Don't get caught up in the numbers game, it breeds cynicism.