During the 2003 legislative session, under the encouragement of Tom DeLay and Governor Rick Perry, the Republican majority introduced legislation to redraw the districts from 2001. This legislation was brought to the district court in Austin, where a three judge panel declared that it violated neither the Texas Constitution nor the Voting Rights Act.[7] Because the Democrats did not have enough votes to stop the legislature, 52 Democrats from the House of Representative left for Oklahoma in order to prevent the quorum. These 52 Democrats were known as the "Killer Ds". The Killer Ds returned to the state on the promise that redistricting would not be brought up in the regular session.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Texas_redistrictingIn summer 2003, Governor Rick Perry called a special legislative session in order to continue the redistricting effort. The Democrats had over 1/3 of the seats in the Senate and prevented the redistricting legislature from being voted on due to the two-thirds rule. After finding a way around the two-thirds rule, Governor Perry called for a second special session half an hour later. Eleven out of twelve of the Democratic Senators left for Albuquerque, New Mexico to prevent the quorum, and were nicknamed the Texas Eleven. After a month-long stand off, Senator John Whitmire return to the Senate and the redistricting legislature was passed at a third special legislative session. After the 2004 elections, Texas's U.S. House delegation had a Republican majority for the first time since Reconstruction.
Thanks for that post.
I’m currently arguing with someone on another site who told me that the vote to redraw congressional districts was eventually ruled unconstitutional.
You wouldn’t happen to have a government/court/news link I could use, would ya?