Category Archives: Killer D’s

Sorry I missed this event on Friday. The University of Texas School of Law will host a symposium on Friday, March 2, about the 2003 Congressional redistricting in Texas, which is also the focus of a new book by adjunct … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Why do these big rulings always happen while I’m on vacation? A three-judge federal panel on Friday placed Webb County into one congressional district, solidifying Hispanic voting strength in South Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court remanded the map to the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s a certain karma in having the DeLay ballot replacement ruling be handed down by one federal appeals court on the same day that another such court was hearing about proposed remedies to the state’s unconstitutional Congressional map. One theme … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Will Ciro Rodriguez run again for Congress? Depending on what map is ultimately adopted by the court, the answer is Yes, according to Aaron Pena. Returned a call from former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez who wanted to inform me of his … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Friday was the deadline for parties in the redistricting lawsuit to files their comments on everyone else’s plans, and the state-drawn Eviscerate Lloyd Doggett plan was heavily criticized by expected and unexpected sources. “The state plan changes two or three … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Local political consultant Mustafa Tameez has gone over all of the redistricting map proposals that have been submitted to the three-judge panel, plus their briefs where available, and put together a concise analysis of them all, complete with illustrations. I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m counting a total of twelve new maps available for viewing at the Texas Redistricting site. My eyes are a little crossed from looking at all of this – the RedViewer is a great resource, but an annoying one as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Proposals for new Congressional maps are starting to come in for examination by the three-judge panel. LULAC is first out of the blocks, with two maps that make changes to five districts. I’ve got a look at them over at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

With the prospect of Webb County being reunited in a single Congressional district, the citizens of Laredo are pondering whether they’re better off bifurcated, where at least there’d two Congressfolk nominally representing their interests. Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas believes it … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via Dos Centavos, an Express News article fro last Friday on how the CD23/CD28 conundrum may get resolved. Some local Democrats hope to see Laredo dropped from District 28 in the remapping process, which starts with parties in the case … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Despite the Chron’s archives being unavailable, I did a little Googling and was able to find enough information about the 1996 Supreme Court decision on Texas’ Congressional districts to make a determination about when the new map was in place … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Time to go through the news and see what we’ve learned since yesterday’s SCOTUS ruling on Texas redistricting. Before I get into that, let me start by endorsing what Matt wrote about the Voting Rights Act. It was important in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The long-awaited Supreme Court ruling on Texas’ re-redistricting of 2003 is in. The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld almost all of Texas’ Republican-friendly U.S. House election district map. By a 5-4 vote, the court said the 23rd District in Southwest … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m glad to see that nothing important happened while my family and I were on the plane home today. I wouldn’t have had the energy to do anything about it. See you all tomorrow. Continue reading →

Rep. Aaron Pena reminds us that today is the three-year anniversary of the Ardmore exodus. I expanded on his post over at Kuff’s World. Continue reading →

The Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on the Texas redistricting of 2003 on Wednesday, March 1. The Lone Star Project sent out this letter (PDF) yesterday, with an update on where things stand, a timeline, a brief bio … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here’s the Chron story on the re-redistricting re-review. The main difference between it and the earlier AP version is this: Democrats claimed optimism following the announcement that the justices had agreed to hear arguments. “Today’s Supreme Court action agreeing to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here we go again. The Supreme Court said today it would consider the constitutionality of a Texas congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay that helped Republicans gain seats in Congress. […] Justices will consider a constitutional challenge to the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Almost two years ago, after the 2003 Texas re-redistricting map had been approved by the Lege and as the Jackson v. Perry lawsuit first made its way into the courts, there were reports that lawyers at the Justice Department wanted … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s still not over yet. The Supreme Court will consider Travis County, Texas, et al. v. Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, et al., along with several other related Texas redistricting cases, during its private conference on Friday. They are among … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Rick Hasen reads the federal court decision from yesterday so you don’t have to. He has some interesting thoughts on what it all means. Check it out. Thanks to Seth for the tip. Continue reading →

The Quorum Report reports: FEDERAL PANEL RULES IN FAVOR OF THE STATE ON REDISTRICTING Next step would be a direct appeal to the Supreme Court. Plaintiff Attorney Gerry Hebert has confirmed a federal three-judge panel has ruled in favor of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I somehow managed to forget to note that yesterday was the two year anniversary of the Ardmore walkout. Aaron Pena, who was one of the quorum-busting reps, remembers with a link to this DMN story (generously excerpted by Save Texas … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In case you hadn’t heard, the state of Georgia, whose three branches of state government are newly under all-Republican control, are planning to re-redistrict in time for the 2006 elections. MyDD and Ed Kilgore have the details, with Kilgore noting … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via Greg, I see there are two editorials discussing State Sen. Jeff Wentworth’s biennial quest to pass a bill that would take the chore of redistricting away from the Legislature and hand it to a balanced bipartisan commission. (His bill … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Keith Gaddie, who commented on the reconsideration of the 2003 re-redistricting case here, has a guest post at BOR in which he expands on his initial remarks. He thinks the key to the review may not be the Pennsylvania Vieth … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Stakeholder points to the UPI coverage of the re-arguments of re-redistricting in the federal appeals court. I agree it covers the main points well, but there’s a glaring factual error that needs to be corrected: The old Texas map … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Supreme Court-ordered review of the federal lawsuits filed against the Texas re-redistricting of 2003 is scheduled for tomorrow. SCOTUS has ordered the lower court to reconsider its ruling in light of the Vieth v Jubelirir case that it decided … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’m as happy as anyone to see Tom DeLay get subpoenaed, but let’s keep a few things in perspective. First, this is a civil lawsuit, not a part of the grand jury investigations, though it is connected to his recent … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It ain’t over yet. The Supreme Court handed Democrats a victory Monday, ordering a lower court to reconsider a Texas redistricting plan that could give Republicans six more seats and a firmer hold on their majority in the House. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Lasso cites this New Yorker article by Jeffrey Toobin on redistricting, and pulls up short when he sees a reference to the 2003 re-redistricting in Texas: When the DeLay plan was submitted to the Justice Department for approval, career officials … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I doubt this will be any kind of portent for the upcoming Jackson v. Perry case, as the issue had turned on the Colorado state constitution, but SCOTUS has denied cert to the GOP in their attempt to get a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The op-ed by UT law prof Mitchell Berman, which was originally printed in the LA Times, ran today in the Statesman. I’m glad to see it get some airtime in Texas and hope it spawns some debate. In related news, … Continue reading → Continue reading →