DC Court denies summary judgment for preclearance of TX Redistricting Maps

[sonias]

Lone Star Project 11/8/11]


Breaking News: New Maps in Store for Texas
DC Court denies summary judgment for preclearance of State House, State Senate and Congressional maps. Court will draw interim maps.

Earlier today, a three-judge panel in the DC Federal District Court denied a motion by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott that all three Texas redistricting plans be approved without a trial on the merits of the plans. The Court ruling has the practical effect of blocking the use of the Republican plans for the 2012 elections. Congressional, State House and State Senate plans used for the 2012 elections will now be drawn by a three judge federal panel in San Antonio. The Texas Court is expected to order new plans by the end of November.

Texas Republicans have pursued a cynical strategy to draw overtly partisan maps by undermining the voting strength of Hispanic and African American voters. They attempted to avoid strong enforcement of the US Voting Rights Act by avoiding the US Department of Justice and seeking approval directly from the federal courts. The GOP strategy has failed badly. After squandering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in taxpayer money on legal and administrative fees, the GOP plans cannot be used for the 2012 elections.

The Court order states:

"Having carefully considered the entire record and the parties’ arguments, the Court finds and concludes that the State of Texas used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice and that there are material issues of fact in dispute that prevent this Court from entering declaratory judgment that the three redistricting plans meet the requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act." (emphasis added)

and

"the District Court for the Western District of Texas must designate a substitute interim plan for the 2012 election cycle by the end of November.

See the Court Order Here

Comments from Matt Angle, Executive Director of the Lone Star Project

"Texas Republican's opted to draw illegal redistricting plans by undermining the rights of millions of Texas voters. The DC Federal Court rebuked that strategy today."

"The Court has justified the efforts those with the courage and tenacity to fight Texas Republican leaders. Leaders like Representative Marc Veasey, Senator Wendy Davis and Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks deserve credit for standing up for Texas voters."

:woohoo: :bounce::woohoo: :bounce:

[sonias]

1. D.C. court orders trial in redistricting case

Postcards from the Lege blog AAS 11/8/11
D.C. court orders trial in redistricting case

(snip)
The redistricting maps drawn earlier this year by the Legislature must get approval from the federal government - in this case the Washington court - before the new maps can be enacted. A history of racial and ethnic discrimination in Texas and several other mostly southern states necessitates pre-clearance, which is outlined the Voting Rights Act.

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat and chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said the ruling supports what leaders of the caucus have been saying for months.
“(T)he Republican Leadership discriminated against minorities by seeking to grow their political influence in the halls of Congress and the Texas House while ignoring the demographic reality of those responsible for our state’s population growth,” Martinez Fischer said.

(snip)
The Washington court represents one front on the redistricting fight. Another panel of federal judges in San Antonio has been hearing from the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and other plaintiffs suing the state for creating redistricting maps that they say dilute the minority vote and violate the U.S. Constitution.

:kick:

[onestepforward]

2. Oops!

We must have seen this at the same time :D

It's great news!

[sonias]

3. Great minds think alike!

I just saw your post too!

:thumbsup:

[sonias]

4. Court Blocks Texas Redistricting Map, Prompts "Disorder"

KUT Austin News 11/8/11
Court Blocks Texas Redistricting Map, Prompts "Disorder"

Controversial maps that redraw political boundaries in Texas will be sent to trial, delivering a blow to the Republican state lawmakers who dominated the redistricting process. A Washington D.C.-based federal court agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice that the state legislature used an improper standard for determining whether the new districts discriminate against minorities.

For some clarification on the ruling, we spoke to Jim Henson, a University of Texas professor of government and director of the Texas Politics Project.

KUT News: In plain language, what does this ruling mean?

Jim Henson: It means that it throws the whole universe for the elections in a certain amount of disorder. Not completely unpredictable disorder. But disorder.

It means the federal court in San Antonio will be redrawing maps for the elections that are actually coming up very soon in March. They’ve already adjusted the filing deadlines once. Now all the eyes will turn to just what those districts will look like.

You’ve got a whole slew of candidates in Texas, basically everybody in the legislature, running in districts where they don’t really have an enormous amount of assurance what the lines are. That goes for the Congressional races too.

:kick:

[sonias]

5. D.C. Panel Nixes Quick Approval of State Request for Pre-Clearance

Quorum Report Daily Buzz 11/8/11
November 8, 2011

D.C. PANEL NIXES QUICK APPROVAL OF STATE REQUEST FOR PRE-CLEARANCE ON LEGISLATIVE, CONGRESSIONAL MAPS

In denying summary judgment, Court finds that Texas "used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice"

(snip)
Some observers point out to us that it is significant that a three-judge panel -- two of whom were appointed by President George W. Bush -- found that the state applied an improper legal standard on whether the legislative and Congressional maps hindered the right of minorities in Texas to elect a preferred candidate of choice.

Interesting that at least two of those judges (i.e. a majority on this 3 person court)obviously saw that Texas republicans over reached!
:kick:

[sonias]

6. MALDEF's Press Release

D.C. COURT DENIES FAST-TRACK APPROVAL OF TEXAS REDISTRICTING PLANS
MALDEF presented arguments on voting rights violations

SAN ANTONIO, TX –Today, the federal district court in Washington, D.C. issued an order denying a request by Texas for expedited approval of the State's congressional, Texas House and Texas Senate redistricting plans.

MALDEF, on behalf of the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force, presented oral argument to the D.C. court on November 2, 2011, urging the court to deny expedited approval of the State's plans because they diminish Latino voting strength.

As a result of today's ruling, the redistricting plans, which were enacted by the Legislature, cannot be used for the 2012 election cycle. A federal district court in San Antonio will now create redistricting plans to serve as interim remedies for the 2012 elections.

Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF’s President and General Counsel stated:
"The federally-mandated preclearance process played its appropriate and critical role here by preventing the state of Texas from implementing demonstrably unlawful and discriminatory district maps. We look forward to the implementation of fairer district plans for 2012."

MALDEF’s Vice President of Litigation and Lead Counsel for the Latino Task Force, Nina Perales, stated:
"Today's ruling is an important development in the effort to secure fair redistricting plans in Texas. It is our hope that the proposed redistricting plans we offered in last week’s remedial hearing are incorporated into the new plans being created by the San Antonio federal court for the 2012 elections. There has been substantial growth in Texas' Latino population over the past decade, and the plans should contain more Latino majority districts to reflect that growth."

======================
Founded in 1968, MALDEF is the nation's leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the "law firm of the Latino community," MALDEF promotes social change through advocacy, communications, community education, and litigation in the areas of education, employment, immigrant rights, and political access. For more information on MALDEF, please visit: www.maldef.org.

:applause::applause::applause:

:kick:

[sonias]

7. Feds Toss Out Election Maps

Austin Chronicle 11/8/11
Feds Toss Out Election Maps

Good news for fans of representative democracy: This morning, a three judge Federal panel in DC threw out the Republican gerrymandered Congressional, State House and State Senate maps, leaving judges in San Antonio to draw new boundaries.

(snip)
The real question now is what these new maps will look like and whether the San Antonio judges will tweak around the edges to just make them legal, or they will do a wholesale re-slicing to ensure real representation. Even though no Travis County seats were originally part of the contested seat list, the Gerrymander was so intensely finessed that any redrawing could have a serious impact.

That may be truest in the Congressional and Senate seats. While much attention has been paid locally to the potential infighting for a seat in DC, the Senate maps were generally acknowledged as being redrawn to get rid of Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Pulling any one block out of that Jenga pile could have massive consequences all the way down I-35.

:kick:

[sonias]

8. Federal Judges Will Draw New Political Maps for Texas

Texas Tribune 11/8/11
Federal Judges Will Draw New Political Maps for Texas

Next year's congressional and legislative elections in Texas will probably be conducted using political maps drawn by federal judges instead of those drawn by lawmakers.

(snip)

The ruling affects new redistricting maps for the 36 seats in Texas' congressional delegation, the 31 seats in the Texas Senate and the 150 seats in the Texas House.

That three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., will hold a trial on the maps to determine whether the state maintained the proper protections for minority voters. Because that will take some time, it probably means the March primaries will be conducted using maps drawn by a separate panel of three federal judges in San Antonio.

That Texas panel has already held hearings and is in the early stages of map-making. It already adjusted the filing deadlines, saying candidates can officially sign up between Nov. 28 and Dec. 15. The maps will have to be completed before that so the candidates will know what districts they're filing for.

The state of Texas asked the Washington court for a summary judgment declaring the maps legal under the federal Voting Rights Act, but the court turned down that request.

:kick:

[white cloud]

9. Thanks for the news

K & R

[sonias]

10. Don't count Wendy out

Senator Davis was one of the people who brought the challenge to the maps. I hope the courts give her a fighting chance to hang on to her seat.

:hi: