Despite some legal uncertainty, they pretty much have to keep moving forward. The Houston Independent School District moved forward Wednesday with its takeover of the beleaguered North Forest school system even as state education officials prepare for a Thursday hearing that could delay the annexation. HISD Superintendent Terry Grier announced principal assignments as well as [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Justice Department’
TEA insists North Forest closure moving ahead
TEA Commissioner Michael Williams says don’t listen to the noise, North Forest ISD will be assimilated into HISD as planned on July 1. Williams said the Texas Education Agency, which he oversees, has followed state law and has the necessary approval to proceed with shutting down North Forest ISD, which has a long history of [...]
Justice Department engaged in North Forest closure
A possible ray of hope for supporters of North Forest ISD, which is still hoping to survive past July 1 when the TEA’s order for it to be subsumed into HISD takes effect. The chief of the Justice Department’s voting section wrote a letter to the Texas Education Agency saying federal officials need to know [...]
Abbott asks for the interim maps
Very interesting. The recently dormant Texas redistricting issue woke up Thursday with a disagreement between the state’s attorney general and a Latino legislators’ group. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has called on the Legislature to make the current — and interim — redistricting maps permanent. Abbott’s letter to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus — which [...]
It may not matter where the casinos are
I don’t know if the gambling industry will finally gain traction in their effort to legally expand operations in Texas, but I do wonder if they’re fighting the last war and missing out on what’s happening now elsewhere in the country. Silicon Valley is betting that online gambling is its next billion-dollar business, with developers [...]
How should the San Antonio court proceed after SCOTUS rules on Section 5?
That’s what the San Antonio judges in the redistricting case asked the parties to help it figure out. In its order, the court told parties what has been widely assumed – namely that the panel would “not issue any opinion, if at all, under after the Supreme Court resolves the Section 5 matters.” However, the [...]
Single member districts for Farmers Branch
Another long battle comes to an end. A Dallas federal judge has directed Farmers Branch to implement single-member City Council districts after the U.S. Justice Department signed off on the city’s proposed map. The move could set the stage for a fiery May 11 election in which the outcome may provide the suburb of 29,000 [...]
Looks like we’ll be waiting on SCOTUS for awhile
Texas Redistricting: The Texas redistricting appeal wasn’t on the list of cases reviewed by the Justices at their screening conference today. With the passage of time – and the case not even being listed for review – the calendar now makes it highly unlikely that the court could take up the case even if it [...]
SCOTUS has not taken up the Texas redistricting lawsuit yet
Texas Redistricting: No decision announced [Friday at the Supreme Court about whether the court will hear the Texas redistricting case. The court, however, could issue additional orders on Monday. The Justices haven’t had these briefs for long, so it’s not surprising they haven’t taken action yet. They have conferences on January 11 and 18, and [...]
SCOTUS voter ID update
The matter is officially with the Supreme Court now. A federal court deferred further proceedings in a lawsuit filed by Texas over the state’s voter identification law until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether part of the Voting Rights Act is constitutional. A three-judge panel in Washington said today that “in the interest of [...]
Where redistricting stands with SCOTUS
From Texas Redistricting: What happens now in the Supreme Court? With the filing of motions to affirm or dismiss last week by the Justice Department and intervenors, Texas’ appeal of the preclearance ruling is now ready for review by the Justices. Under Rule 18 of the Supreme Court rules, the clerk of the Supreme Court [...]
Parties split on waiting for SCOTUS
Texas Redistricting: Lawyers for the Justice Department and intervenors in the Texas voter ID case told the court yesterday that the court should put off consideration of Texas’ claim that section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional until the Supreme Court decides the pending Shelby County v. Holder case next year. That case involves a [...]
Voter ID case will likely wait for SCOTUS, too
Texas Redistricting: In a move not too surprising, the three-judge panel in the Texas voter ID case also has asked the parties to brief the question of whether the court should delay taking up questions about the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act given Supreme Court’s grant of cert. in Shelby County [...]
Harris County redistricting lawsuit kicks off
Remember the lawsuit that was filed over the redistricting map for Harris County Commissioners Court? It’s been on hold since the beginning of the year, after an interim map was drawn to get us through this election and since the main point of contention in the new map was not an issue yet. Now that [...]
SCOTUS to review Section 5
Gird your loins. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge brought by Shelby County, Alabama to the continued constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. In its order taking the case, the high court limited the issues before the court to the question of “[w]hether Congress’ decision in 2006 to reauthorize [...]
Today’s the day
At long last, the death march known as Election 2012 will come to an end today, at which time we can begin gearing up for the next elections in 2013, 2014, and 2016, as well as dreading what the Legislature has in store for us. If you haven’t already voted, you can find your Harris [...]
Texas appeals DC Court redistricting decision
I suppose this was inevitable. Texas is appealing a federal court decision that denied preclearance to legislatively drawn redistricting maps, saying the court overstepped its authority under the federal Voting Rights Act, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced late Friday. That appeal won’t affect the current election. [...] Earlier this year — after the elections were [...]
Voting-related lawsuit updates
From Texas Redistricting: The three-judge panel presiding over the Texas voter ID entered an order this morning adopting a briefing schedule for questions about the constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. With minor differences, the schedule tracks the proposal made by lawyers for the Justice Department and intervenors. Here’s the schedule: Texas [...]
More on Texas proving the need for the Voting Rights Act
From the DMN: “There have been growing arguments that the Voting Rights Act is obsolete and should be struck down,” says University of Michigan law professor Ellen Katz, a nationally recognized expert on the Voting Rights Act. “But [Gov.] Rick Perry and the state of Texas, through their overreach in these cases, may have just [...]
The state of Texas has already proven the case for the Voting Rights Act
So as you know, the state of Texas had its rear end handed to it in both the redistricting and voter ID preclearance lawsuits. Both of these rulings will be appealed to the Supreme Court, with the ultimate goal being a constitutional challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which is the provision [...]
Federal court refuses to preclear Texas voter ID bill
Another bad day in court for Texas Republicans. A federal three-judge panel on Thursday blocked the Texas voter ID law passed by the Republican Legislature, saying the new restrictions would place an unfair burden on Latinos, racial minorities and the poor. The ruling by the federal panel is the second blow to Texas in as [...]
Federal court denies preclearance on all redistricting maps
The long-awaited ruling in the preclearance lawsuit by the DC Court
Poli Sci profs against voter ID
Rice political science professor Mark Jones writes an op-ed in the Chron that does a thorough job of dissecting Texas’ contentious voter ID law. Nearly one out of every three Texas counties lacks an operational DPS office, and no office is open after 6 p.m. or on weekends. DPS offices in the largest urban counties [...]
Voter ID trial wraps up
I didn’t follow the day to day reports from the voter ID preclearance trial, mostly because there wasn’t anything in the testimony that was truly unexpected. Lots of numbers, some of questionable provenance, were presented. The state continued to claim that nobody would be prevented from voting, not even the people who don’t have drivers [...]
Voter ID trial, day one
And they’re off, with the state bringing the funny math as part of its case. A Justice Department lawyer, Elizabeth Westfall, argued that the law has the potential to prevent 1.4 million Texans from voting who are eligible but lack the required photo identification — a disproportionate number of them minorities. Previewing the case the [...]
Voter ID trial starts today
Another big lawsuit in a year that’s seen plenty of them. The decades-old legal battle between states’ rights and civil rights returns to a familiar venue – a federal courtroom – on Monday as lawyers for the state of Texas try to convince a panel of judges that the U.S. Justice Department has no legal [...]
Yet another voting-related lawsuit
I had completely forgotten about this. A federal judge in Galveston is to consider motions in a lawsuit filed by a Washington-based voters’ rights group that contends Texas laws make it illegally difficult to register voters. The group Voting for America is seeking an injunction to block enforcement of laws they say keep registration records [...]
Abbott gives on legislative privilege
About time. In an effort to move to trial more quickly, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has quietly dropped his opposition to the Department of Justice’s request to take depositions from state lawmakers in the voter identification case. In March, Abbott asked a federal court in Washington to shield 12 state lawmakers from giving depositions [...]
A trio of trial updates
Planned Parenthood versus Texas: A ruling affecting health care, including contraception, for some 130,000 low-income Texas women probably won’t come until late this year as Planned Parenthood and the state of Texas plan for mid-October oral arguments in their legal fight. The state is appealing a preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel granted [...]
Voter ID trial likely to be delayed
And if it is, it’s all the fault of the State of Texas. In another blow to advocates of Texas’ voter ID law, a federal district court ruled today that the law will likely not be in place by the November general election unless the state turns over requested documents by Wednesday. [...] Late last [...]
Delay in voter ID trial requested
From Michael Li: Intervenors in the Texas voter ID case asked the court today to delay the scheduled July 9 start of trial in the case, citing discovery delays by the State of Texas. The intervenors said the delays had already put the parties at least five weeks behind schedule. According to the motion: From [...]
So long, Santorum
That sound you hear is Texas Republicans crying in their beer. Rick Santorum’s withdrawal today from the 2012 presidential contest makes Texas Republicans, once again, all but irrelevant in their party’s nomination process. The drawn-out nature of the race had given party activists rare hope that this would be the most competitive presidential primary since [...]
Who testifies about voter ID?
That was the question before the federal court on Tuesday. U.S. Justice Department lawyers told a federal three-judge panel Tuesday that Texas legislators should not be shielded from testifying in a voter ID case. But lawyers for state Attorney General Greg Abbott said deposing statehouse Republicans to determine legislative intent of the new photo ID [...]