Burnt Orange Report


News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas






Ad Policies



Support the TDP!



Get Firefox!


January 21, 2005

More Texas Redistricting...

By Byron LaMasters

Vince reports on Political State Report:

The merry-go-round saga of Texas congressional redistricting heads back to a federal court today as Democrats and minority plaintiffs try once again to get the Republican plan pushed through the Texas Legislature by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) thrown out.

Naturally, the state will attempt to show the three-judge federal panel hearing the case that the map is legal and should be used until after the next scheduled round of redistricting in 2011.

Democratic plaintiffs failed in their attempt to block the use of the congressional redistricting plan before the same three-judge panel last year. [...]

Appeals in the case were pending before the U.S. Supreme Court last year when that panel rejected a Pennsylvania redistricting case in a split decision. Four of the justices in Vieth v. Jubelirer said the courts have no business deciding partisan redistricting cases.

Five judges said the courts could intervene but disagreed on how courts should decide whether a partisan gerrymander is not just unfair but unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court then sent the Texas case back to the three-judge panel for reconsideration.

The panel is made up of two Republican appointees, U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham and District Judge Lee Rosenthal of Houston, and one Democratic appointee, District Judge John T. Ward of Marshall.

Controversal attorney Andy Taylor, who is representing the state and has cost Texans thousands of taxpayer dollars, told the panel in briefs that the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Pennsylvania case made the Democrats' lawsuit against the congressional map moot. [...]

Lawyers representing Democratic congressmen and some of the minority plaintiffs looked on the same Supreme Court case in a more positive light: Five of the justices had said courts could decide partisan gerrymandering cases but were looking for a standard of review.


More at Kuff, Election Law Blog, The Stakeholder, and A little Pollyanna. Also see the Austin Chronicle and the Daily Texan.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at January 21, 2005 01:55 PM | TrackBack


Comments

Testimony took about 4 hours. Solicitor General Ted Cruz argued the case for the state. The plaintiff lawyers, plus UT Prof Scot Powe, took turns.

Powe's "one man one vote" arguments made the biggest impression with the justices. Powe, in fact, closed out the plaintiffs' arguments.

Judges took it under advisement and said, basically, "Let's not meet again, okay?"

For his part, Cruz served the state well and was well-versed on the case. He's a two-time national debating champ and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. And was Rehnquist's law clerk. And a bunch of agency work. Okay, I'm beginning to feel a bit intimidated. And really really old.

Posted by: Kimberly at January 21, 2005 08:25 PM

Good article by Byron and excellent post by Kimberly! Thank you. I still find it all a bit confusing and can't imagine the court overturning the DeLay redistricting scheme, given the politics of the situation.

However, I must say that I would have to believe modern redistricting, using computer modeling and intended to guarantee incumbency once the "right" party wins, is a violation of the 14th Amendment. Voters are, in effect, being denied a real vote. Moreover, the House of Representatives, the so-called "Peoples' House," no longer deserves that name. House reelection rates across the country have reached Stalinist levels. Alternatively, to use a British metaphor, the House of Representatives has become a veritable House of Lords. What do we do about this? I imagine that politics will prevent anything from being done about this. The most equitable solution might to be create truly nonpartisan redistricting boards in all 50 states. Yet, that hardly seems likely.

Posted by: Scoop Jackson Democrat at January 22, 2005 09:24 AM

Your only hope is to get a partisan gerrymandering claim that is also a 14th amendment violation . . . in otherwirds, the majority will has to be defied now and in the future. Texas has all of the indicators except one: defying the majority will.

Posted by: Keith at January 22, 2005 10:30 AM

Byron,

Thanks for cross-posting that. I actually made the PSR report from my office. I'd intended to post to BOR from there, but I didn't have my pw saved on that computer.

Posted by: Vince Leibowitz at January 23, 2005 12:29 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?






BOA.JPG


October 2005
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          


About Us
About BOR
Advertising Policies

Byron L. - Founder
Karl-Thomas M. - Owner
Andrea M. - Contact
Andrew D. - Contact
Damon M. - Contact
Drew C. - Contact
Jim D. - Contact
John P. - Contact
Katie N. - Contact
Kirk M. - Contact
Marcus C. - Contact
Matt H. - Contact
Phillip M. - Contact
Vince L. - Contact
Zach N. - Conact

Donate

Tip Jar!



Archives
Recent Entries
Categories
BOR Edu.
University of Texas
University Democrats

BOR News
The Daily Texan
The Statesman
The Chronicle

BOR Politics
DNC
DNC Blog: Kicking Ass
DSCC
DSCC Blog: From the Roots
DCCC
DCCC Blog: The Stakeholder
Texas Dems
Travis County Dems
Dallas Young Democrats

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett
State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez
State Rep. Mark Strama
Traffic Ratings
Alexa Rating
Marketleap
Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem
Technoranti Link Cosmos
Blogstreet Blogback
Polling
American Research Group
Annenberg Election Survey
Gallup
Polling Report
Rasmussen Reports
Survey USA
Zogby
Texas Stuff
A Little Pollyana
Austin Bloggers
D Magazine
DFW Bogs
DMN Blog
In the Pink Texas
Inside the Texas Capitol
The Lasso
Pol State TX Archives
Quorum Report Daily Buzz
George Strong Political Analysis
Texas Law Blog
Texas Monthly
Texas Observer
TX Dem Blogs
100 Monkeys Typing
Alandwilliams.com
Alt 7
Annatopia
Appalachia Alumni Association
Barefoot and Naked
BAN News
Betamax Guillotine
Blue Texas
Border Ass News
The Daily DeLay
The Daily Texican
DemLog
Dos Centavos
Drive Democracy Easter Lemming
Esoterically
Get Donkey
Greg's Opinion
Half the Sins of Mankind
Jim Hightower
Houtopia
Hugo Zoom
Latinos for Texas
Off the Kuff
Ones and Zeros
Panhandle Truth Squad
Aaron Peña's Blog
People's Republic of Seabrook
Pink Dome
The Red State
Rhetoric & Rhythm
Rio Grande Valley Politics
Save Texas Reps
Skeptical Notion
Something's Got to Break
Southpaw
Stout Dem Blog
The Scarlet Left
Tex Prodigy
ToT
View From the Left
Yellow Doggeral Democrat
TX GOP Blogs
Beldar Blog
Blogs of War
Boots and Sabers
Dallas Arena
Jessica's Well
Lone Star Times
Publius TX
Safety for Dummies
The Sake of Arguement
Slightly Rough
Daily Reads
&c.
ABC's The Note
Atrios
BOP News
Daily Kos
Media Matters
MyDD
NBC's First Read
Political State Report
Political Animal
Political Wire
Talking Points Memo
Wonkette
Matthew Yglesias
College Blogs
CDA Blog
Get More Ass (Brown)
Dem Apples (Harvard)
KU Dems
U-Delaware Dems
UNO Dems
Stanford Dems
GLBT Blogs
American Blog
BlogActive
Boi From Troy
Margaret Cho
Downtown Lad
Gay Patriot
Raw Story
Stonewall Dems
Andrew Sullivan
More Reads
Living Indefinitely
Blogroll Burnt Orange!
BOR Webrings
< ? Texas Blogs # >
<< ? austinbloggers # >>
« ? MT blog # »
« ? MT # »
« ? Verbosity # »
Election Returns
CNN 1998 Returns
CNN 2000 Returns
CNN 2002 Returns
CNN 2004 Returns

state elections 1992-2005

bexar county elections
collin county elections
dallas county elections
denton county elections
el paso county elections
fort bend county elections
galveston county elections
harris county elections
jefferson county elections
tarrant county elections
travis county elections


Texas Media
abilene
abilene reporter news

alpine
alpine avalanche

amarillo
amarillo globe news

austin
austin american statesman
austin chronicle
daily texan online
keye news (cbs)
kut (npr)
kvue news (abc)
kxan news (nbc)
news 8 austin

beaumont
beaumont enterprise

brownsville
brownsville herald

college station
the battalion (texas a&m)

corpus christi
corpus christi caller times
kris news (fox)
kztv news (cbs)

crawford
crawford lone star iconoclast

dallas-fort worth
dallas morning news
dallas observer
dallas voice
fort worth star-telegram
kdfw news (fox)
kera (npr)
ktvt news (cbs)
nbc5 news
wfaa news (abc)

del rio
del rio news herald

el paso
el paso times
kdbc news (cbs)
kfox news (fox)
ktsm (nbc)
kvia news (abc)

fredericksburg
standard-radio post

galveston
galveston county daily news

harlingen
valley morning star

houston
houston chronicle
houston press
khou news (cbs)
kprc news (nbc)
ktrk news (abc)

kerrville
kerrville daily times

laredo
laredo morning times

lockhart
lockhart post-register

lubbock
lubbock avalanche journal

lufkin
lufkin daily news

marshall
marshall news messenger

mcallen
the monitor

midland - odessa
midland reporter telegram
odessa american

san antonio
san antonio express-news

seguin
seguin gazette-enterprise

texarkana
texarkana gazette

tyler
tyler morning telegraph

victoria
victoria advocate

waco
kxxv news (abc)
kwtx news (cbs)
waco tribune-herald

weslaco
krgv news (nbc)

statewide
texas cable news
texas triangle


World News
ABC News
All Africa News
Arab News
Atlanta Constitution-Journal
News.com Australia
BBC News
Bloomberg
Boston Globe
CBS News
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
CNN
Denver Post
FOX News
Google News
The Guardian
Inside China Today
International Herald Tribune
Japan Times
LA Times
Mexico Daily
Miami Herald
MSNBC
New Orleans Times-Picayune
New York Times
El Pais (Spanish)
Salon
San Francisco Chronicle
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Slate
Times of India
Toronto Star
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post



Powered by
Movable Type 3.2b1