Court Won't Hear Texas Redistricting Case

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider if Texas Republicans went too far last year in their strategy to enact new GOP-friendly congressional boundaries.

The congressional map that could give Texas Republicans six more seats cleared the state Legislature after months of turmoil and two walkouts by Democrats.

Despite absent Democratic colleagues, Republican Senate leaders were able to get redistricting plans up for votes by bypassing the traditional requirement that two-thirds of the 31 senators had to agree to call up a bill before debates could begin.

The 11 Senate Democrats who had fled Texas for weeks filed a lawsuit arguing that the policy change violated the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters. They lost in a lower court and asked the Supreme Court to consider the case.
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More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3994691,00.html

or has it already been reported somewhere else?

(I haven't seen it anywhere else).

edit - I see it was posted on Yahoo 41 minutes ago.

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Texas Redistricting Case

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23705-2004Apr19.html

There are 2 Democratic appointees on the federal Supreme Court.

Kennedy: Reagan
Thomas: Bush
Souter: Bush
Ginsburg: Clinton
Stevens: Ford
Scalia: Reagan
Rehnquist: Nixon
O'Connor: Reagan
Breyer: Clinton

Thankfully, * hasn't put anyone on the Sup Crt. What a nightmare.

Thankfully, * hasn't put anyone on the Sup Crt. What a nightmare.

Soon you'll be able to get out the Crisco for...

Mr. Chief Justice Ashcroft!

So the justices won't tackle this case. Lovely.

I reside in Pete Sessions' district, but Martin Frost is gonna take it from him in November if we have anything to say about it. We're mobilizing behind him, and it's going to be a vigorous campaign.

Hope other Texas Democrats are doing likewise (as if I had to ask).

I moved from an area in Martin Frost's district. Now I am served by *cough, gasp, cough* Joe Barton. I know of no democrat that has a chance of beating him in the near future. Maybe I should run.

I'm in Barton's *cough, gasp, wheeze* district too! :-(

county (we have a prevailing southerly wind) is killing us! Joe Barton should have to breathe this junk every day!

They gerrymandered Austin into three districts. I'm now in a district with a large part of Houston and a lot of countryside. There is no Democrat running (though there are a few write-ins). The Republican campaign argued over who was most conservative, and who had the greatest distinction from Democrats.

However, Doggett decided to run in another district, which was gerrymandered south to the border (We're talking a long way). DeLay, who's biggest impetus in redistricting was defeating the very progressive Doggett, hoped that this district would be solidly hispanic, and that Doggett would lose to an Hispanic rival in the primaries. It failed. Austin voted overwhelmingly for Doggett, and even the valley went for Doggett rather than the Hispanic candidate, proving that Hispanic voters in Texas are more sophisticated than white Republicans.

So Doggett is in, and my part of Austin is paired with a part of Houston that would have gone Repub anyway. No gain for Delay in Austin.

gerrymandering. Wonderful! The overtaking of my state by repubes continues....

of the credibility of the Supreme Court. Should the Founding Fathers have even bothered? Well, at least it worked for about 200 years.

And without regard to the constitution.

Why at this point I would expect anything different is beyond me.

This is a state matter. And while the redistricting was clearly drawn to favor Republicans, and was drawn with race as a heavy consideration, it was also drawn to create more non-white districts, so it's hard to argue that the boundaries discriminated on race. I'm not saying it didn't-- it did-- but the discrimination was subtle, and based on party, and that would be hard to sell from an objective legal POV.

We did it to them (not nearly as flagrantly, but we did) when were in control. We'll do it again when we regain control. And since the state is already a majority non-white, and will be a majority Hispanic in the next decade, that may not be very long. This may be the last gasp of spoiled and scared white men. We just have to win as much as we can on the ground.

And anyone in the campaigns on the ground, don't listen to the state party! They are so hung up on doing things by the book, GOTVing the right areas, canvass calling this who voted Demcocrat in the last three primaries, etc, they don't quite get two important points. One, the situation is so different now that a person's past voting record isn't relevant. Two, we lost the last three elections badly, so trying to get out our base without trying to increase our base is a losing effort from the beginning. Canvassing and converting are the best methods.

efforts. It all goes back to the folks on the ground doing the work.

I am glad that Doggett is still in. I hope that Martin Frost also survives. Delay really hates Doggett and Frost.

We must take back the Supreme Court!

And it would cover all of the redistricting steals?

The fact that neither Scalia nor Thomas recused themselves in Bush v. Gore (despite the fact that each had family working for Bush) speaks volumes about the ethical tin ear of the Rehnquist court. Shame on them.