White House Aims to Protect New Texas Map

[dusty64]

Feb 17, 3:14 PM (ET)


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Bush administration's request to join Texas in defending a Republican-friendly congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay.

The administration will share time with Texas lawyers on March 1, when the court holds a special afternoon session to consider four appeals that stem from the bitter dispute over Texas congressional district boundaries.

Justices are considering whether the Republican-controlled Legislature acted purely for partisan gain in 2003 when it threw out district boundaries that had been used in the 2002 elections, and whether the new map violated a federal voting rights law.

The Justice Department approved the plan although staff lawyers concluded that it diluted minority voting rights. The Bush administration asked the high court last week for permission to participate in the case, supporting Texas.


The redistricting helped Republicans win 21 of Texas' 32 seats in Congress in the last election, up from 15.

The congressional districts were redrawn after Republicans took control of the state House in 2002. DeLay, R-Texas, has been indicted on money laundering charges stemming from his efforts to aid Republicans in state legislative elections that year
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060217/D8FR2T8G2.html

[politicaholic]

1. Welcome to Blatantville, TX...

Home of the Fighting Chickenhawks.

[TomInTib]

2. Isn't this the State's Rights crowd? nt

[atreides1]

3. State's Rights

As long as it favors the Republican(Facist)Party.

[tanyev]

16. Only when the other party is in the White House.

[Up2Late]

4. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

:mad:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. The Supreme Court is going to assure that the redistricting stays in place

Texas was a test case and it's been a success. They redistricted their way to a majority and suppressed the minority voters voices. A republican dream come true.

Once bush and crew finish up here they can and will be coming after your state next. The Supreme Court is going to make sure of that.

[dusty64]

6. Fine then

I say the Democrats do the same thing where they are able. It would be legal unless the extremes issue another "onetime" ruling.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. I've said that before myself

Why they haven't yet is beyond me. :shrug:

It would simply be fighting fire with fire.

[Mithras61]

8. We have to control the DoJ first...

because they control the approval process. So long as redistricting has to go through the Federal court system to be approved and deemed racism free, the party controlling DoJ gets to decide what is and is not racism, which means it all bends in their favor so long as the district maps aren't so blatant the judges can't pretend it's "just politics."

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. Does that means that I may well be correct then?

There is a strong possibility that with their success here and current SC Justices in pocket, they could decide to go after other states.

If so, do have any idea which states might be in peril?

[Mithras61]

10. It's hard to tell if they'll go after other states...

Basically, they are playing by rules they have currently set up... the state has to have been redistricted by something other than the official process (as in TX using a redistricting board) or wait for the next census, and they have to be somewhat selective in that the state's legislature & executive have to be Repuke.

It also works to their benefit if the Federal delegation doesn't break along the same lines as the State delegation or as the distribution of votes (they seem to think that if they get 60% of the votes, they should have 60% of the delegates).

[EC]

11. The fact that the Republican administration of the WH

is going to be there to DEFEND it, shows this Justices are considering whether the Republican-controlled Legislature acted purely for partisan gain in 2003 when it threw out district boundaries that had been used in the 2002 elections, and whether the new map violated a federal voting rights law.

[Tempest]

12. And here I thought the office of the president was for ALL Americans

Not just for the party in power.

The end of democracy as we know it.

[rodeodance]

13. dammmmmmmmmm

[boddhi]

14. it's called gerrymandering and it's dangerous to the heart of democracy

i would like to think that there are more democrats who are interested in maintaining an actual democracy than in winning elections which is why they haven't done it, but it's probably just because they aren't as disciplined as the repugs.

with computer technology, overlaying voter registrations with maps is relatively easy. One of the Texas reps who lost is seat was on NPR a while back and said they'd drawn a line right down the middle of his street, separating the house across the street from his so half of his neighbors couldn't vote for him.

it's also part of a larger trend that we can thank Mr. Rove for which is "win at all costs". The reason why all elected officials promise to uphold the constitution is that they're SUPPOSED to believe in democracy above even their own political or even personal ideals. This has changed.

Hence, gerrymandering, election fraud, attempting to buy or alter the elections in other places like Iraq, Haiti and Palestine, illegally funneling money to local elections a la DeLay - whatever it takes to win. It shouldn't be about winning, it should be about trusting people to decide what's best for them.

If the democrats do the same, then democracy is dead. Maybe they have to do it to restore democracy, but I'm not sure that's a line that can be recrossed.

it'll be a sad day if scotus says it's ok.....

[ripple]

15. WTF?

The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Bush administration's request to join Texas in defending a Republican-friendly congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay.

How are they "joining Texas"?

They certainly aren't "joining" the people of Texas or their interests. Instead, they are joining a bunch of hacks hired by the criminals in charge!

Joining Texas, my ass! :grr:

[President Kerry]

17. they are joining to support the crown-jewel initiative of an indicted

criminal, Tom Delay. That would be the Office of the President of the United States. We're sinking lower and lower..

[sam sarrha]

18. the Gerrymandering was illegal, it is legislated to be considered every

10 years, and it had been done only 2 years before at the time.

i lived in El Paso at the time.. we were Gerrymandered into a suburb of Austin by a 3 foot wide line down the middle of the freeway.. about 440 miles.. we were eaten up by a big RepugNut neighborhood.. actually only the democratic neighborhoods were Gerrymandered..

[HuffleClaw]

19. that is truly sickening

this is, if i recall my poli sci classes, called 'gerrymandering', as blatant a case of such as i've ever heard of. but i suppose bush's new pet court will rubberstamp it.

[OKNancy]

20. Kick

[Judi Lynn]

21. White House to help protect GOP-drawn Texas map

Feb. 17, 2006, 5:37PM
White House to help protect GOP-drawn Texas map

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today granted the Bush administration's request to join Texas in defending a Republican-friendly congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay.

The administration will share time with Texas lawyers on March 1, when the court holds a special afternoon session to consider four appeals that stem from the bitter dispute over Texas congressional district boundaries.

Justices are considering whether the Republican-controlled Legislature acted purely for partisan gain in 2003 when it threw out district boundaries that had been used in the 2002 elections, and whether the new map violated a federal voting rights law.

The Justice Department approved the plan although staff lawyers concluded that it diluted minority voting rights. The Bush administration asked the high court last week for permission to participate in the case, supporting Texas.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/3667654.html
(Free registration required)

[truthisfreedom]

22. lovely. let them dig in and defend the strangest-looking map ever.

corruption immersing itself in corruption.

[Lasher]

23. Very interesting

Since the redistricting was not done after a census, then one must conclude that "the Republican-controlled Legislature acted purely for partisan gain in 2003". Traditional gerrymandering (right after a census) is bad enough, but at least in those cases there has been an excuse.

Any other conclusion is just a bullshit excuse to cover this high-profile scheme to stack the deck in Texas.

[TexasLawyer]

27. Doesn't just affect Texas

The redistricting ensured additional wins by the GOP for the US House.

The whole country gets to live by the laws these DeLay lapdogs all help to pass.

[Lasher]

29. Right, it affects us all.

Didn't the GOP pull something like that off in Georgia in 2003? And they've been slobbering at the prospect of getting Schwartzenburger to help rig the vote just like this in California.

BTW, I'm not one who condemns Texans in general, just because the pukes are currently running roughshod. Keep fighting the good fight.

Lahser

[BikeWriter]

24. Fascist bastards!

[Big_Mike]

25. It's not only TX that gets gerrymandered.

Here in the High Desert of CA, my local Congresscritter is based out of a town 65 miles away that is on the other side of a mountain range. How does he know what my local issues are? We make up most of the square miles of his district, but very little of the percentage of population. All because the pols up in Sacramento made an agreement between both parties: 20 Senate seats Dem, 10 Repub with the same proportion for the Assembly, which in turn drove the federal seats. What a mess. Personally, I think they should just divide it along the lines of the population, eg 36.5 million divided by whatever number, whether 54 for congress, 30 for state senate and 90 for the assembly. This 60 or 70 mile long district is asinine.

[mantis49]

26. I'm in Rep Lane Evans (D) district in IL,

but you should see on a map what it looks like! I live in a small county an hour north of St Louis. The northern part of his district is the Quad-Cities area (Moline & Rock Island, IL with Davenport & Bettendorf, IA being the 4 cities). The Quad-Cities area is 170-180 miles north of here. His district also takes a small sliver of Springfield, IL.

You can see the IL districts here: http://www.illinoisatlas.com/illinois/political/pdf/il_cd2002.pdf

Evans is 17th. Most of the other districts make sense except maybe the southern parts of the 11th and 15th.

I think we have the same problem with Evans' attention to needs of his constituents that you feel, although I am very pleased with his environmental protection record.

[bvar22]

28. Even thought it "it diluted minority voting rights",

approved anyway?????

"it diluted minority voting rights"!!!.

What more does a court need to know?


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.