Posted on 04/23/2004 5:09:41 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
But Supreme Court's refusal to hear appeal may not be last word.
There was no doubt profound satisfaction - if not uncontrollable spontaneous merriment - in the highest councils of the Texas Republican Party this week.
It was prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear an appeal from Texas Democratic state senators of last year's GOP-backed congressional redistricting scheme.
The Republican plan made it through to enactment only after three special sessions. Those grim sessions saw extensive behind-the-scenes maneuvering by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the godfather of the scheme, merciless arm-twisting, and, finally, the GOP leadership's trashing of the Texas Senate's traditional two-thirds rule, which requires the assent of 21 senators before a bill can reach the floor.
On Tuesday, the nation's highest court upheld a Sept. 12 ruling by a three-judge panel in Laredo dismissing a suit by Democratic state senators. Its reasoning: The suit was premature in that it was filed before the redistricting plan actually passed.
Case closed? Not quite. There's still another redistricting suit out there, and it has yet to be resolved. Democratic Party members and elected officials, members of minority groups and other interested parties filed their suit after passage of the redistricting plan.
It is quite possible that this suit will also find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Is it likely to fare any better than its predecessor? No one - save perhaps the justices themselves - can shed much light on that question.
However, since the same realities will prevail in the consideration given the second suit - notably, a Supreme Court controlled by Republicans - it may well get the same kind of frosty reception.
Would that be a major disaster? Not necessarily. Granted, it would be a serious setback for Democrats in the short term. But it is with good reason that judges, up to and including the Supreme Court, are wary of galloping headlong into partisan political fights.
What this reflects is not necessarily judicial timidity. Rather, it communicates a vision of politics as a self-correcting proposition: If one party goes overboard on gaining power - as the Texas GOP has done - that mechanism may ultimately impose a course correction with no interference from the courts whatsoever.
And if that sounds far-fetched to you, consider Newt Gingrich's Republican "revolution" of a few years back. Yesterday's titan is now reduced to making the rounds of the talk shows. Something similar could happen in Texas - a point high-riding Republicans should keep in mind.
Last time I checked, thanks in part to Newt, the Republicans control the House, Senate and Presidency. Not too shabby.
Is the Caller-Times a newspaper or a wing of the DNC?
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