The San Antonio court entered an order this afternoon setting a hearing for May 29 at 9 a.m. to decide what to do with the Texas maps – or, more exactly, to decide how to decide what to do.
The order acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby Co. would “affect the final outcome of these proceedings,” but said “the Court would like to take reasonable steps to prepare for the difficult task ahead.”
Based on the parties’ prior representations, the court asked the parties to be prepared to agree at the hearing to a stipulation making the interim state senate map the final court-ordered senate plan – or, alternatively, to argue at the hearing why it should not be.
On the state house and congressional maps, the court asked the parties to be prepared to argue whether evidence from the D.C. preclearance case should be admitted into evidence in the San Antonio case and whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to supplement the record with new demographic data and data derived from the 2012 elections.
A copy of the order can be found here.
As we know, sine die is the 27th. There may or may not be a special session on redistricting afterward. SCOTUS hands down its ruling on Section 5 in June. The fun isn’t ending anytime soon.
UPDATE: More from Texas Redistricting and PDiddie.
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