High Court Orders Review of Texas Seats

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a lower court to reconsider a Texas congressional map that could give Republicans six more seats in Congress in upcoming elections and help the GOP protect its majority.

The announcement is a victory for Democrats, but will not affect next month's elections.

Justices threw out a victory for Texas Republican legislators, who had been accused of going far to draw new congressional boundaries after two out-of-state walkouts by Democrats.

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So this won't affect this election, but could help in '06.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/9949833.htm

:bounce:
rocknation

YEAH!!!!!!!!


In your FACE, DeLay you extortionist bastard! :D

If so, this redistricting would have already been thrown out, because they redrew the districts in 01, and then again in 04.

It would be stunning to see the second redistricting done AFTER the elections, though, wouldn't it? WOuld they hold special elections, let the terms expire naturally or just revert to the old seats? It would be a mess.

I know that it's too late for this year, but the repercussions are terrific and it makes me have a bit of hope for the future.

:kick:

I lived in Austin all my life until July, when I moved to Oregon. I was there for all the nonsense, and supported the fleeing Democratic senators during the battle. Being even slightly to the left of center is a hard go in Texas. Thank goodness the Supremes did something sensible to restore my faith in 7 out of 9 of them! The other 2 are lost causes; I need not name names. You know who you are. :P

Hooray for the Killer Ds!

RV

protect our democracy and bring this issue to national attention.
:toast:

One of the leaders of the group who went Ardmore was Elliot Naishtat. he spoke at my club about a weak after he got back. The poor guy was too exhausted to stand, he could barely hold his head up, and he spoke like he was half asleep. He said He had been getting interview requests from all over the country.

A couple days before he spoke to us (He's a member of the club, so we got priority) he spoke at the Massachusets state convention, and he went on right before Kerry. Everyone knew his story, and he got the crowd fired up with the tales of how a small group of Democrats had finally stood up and fought for something. The crowd gave him a long standing ovation, and then Kerry got to speak (before he had gotten the nomination, obviously).

Elliot said he was told that Kerry was livid that they had scheduled someone before him that overshadowed him.

That one event motivated Dems across the nation. It revitalized the party here in Austin. I've never seen a group so motivated, so fiercely activist. Makeshift clubs sprang up all over the city just to organize blockwalks and registration. Donations are through the roof. My club went from about eighteen members a meeting to about forty in one meeting.

Tom Delay-- now there's a real uniter.

is the very distinct possibility that Tom DeLay may go to jail, having accomplished nothing.

All that money, all the sneaking around, all that fibbing, all that misuse of taxpayers dollars ----- and even Bush's Supremes know the end result is unconstitutional.

I've talked to 4 lawyers this morning and none of them seem to know what happens next. Everybody expected the Supremes to wait until AFTER the election. Now this is just more ammunition the Democratic incumbents can use.

jail..."

BTW, don't forget about Richard Morrison - who's working to defeat ze bug man.

http://www.richardmorrisonfordistrict22.com/blog/index.php

Laundering corporate money through a PAC is a felony in Texas. Travis County is still deciding to pursue this or not. Delay needs to go NOW.

Earle's office is pursuing indictments/investigating the matter still. They just don't want to act prematurely, try to indict Delay, and get a no bill from the grand jury. They've obtained indictments of a few of Delay's cohorts, and are hopeful that one or more will roll on the rest of the group. I think the only decision to be made is when, not if, to try for an indictment.

Maybe we GET SOME OF OUR MORE MODERATE DISTRICTS BACK.

wouldn't that be nice.

This whole gerrymandering cr*p really pisses me off. All it does is, it makes everyone who gets in more extreme, since they don't HAVE to be moderate to get re-elected. Bad for our democracy.

Right now, that's the only thing his opponent apparently has on him. It's a Republican leaning district and Patrick one the last time because the incumbent Republican was such a sleaze (their campaigns were the subject of a PBS documentary, "Last Man Standing," in July.)

Too bad Patrick can't campaign on being RIGHT after all! But I'm hopeful he'll be re-elected anyway.

I can't wait to see DeLay's ass in jail!

The Repubs have figured out that manipulating the system to get what they want, then turning around for a gentle slap on the wrist is the new way of doing business.

It's not going to be changed before the election, the GOP will have a dominating majority for the next session, and Delay will be told "yer shoudna dun that".

Big fucking deal.