Supreme Court Overturns Part Of Texas Congressional Map

MSNBC ^ | 6/28/2006 | MSNBC

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

. It found the new District 24 invalid under the federal Voting Rights Act.

So it all depends on who is in the district? Is that how we understand that? Looks like some voters are more equal than others.

[Wallace T.]

Gerrymandering is an old Texas and American tradition, dating back to the early days of the Republic. Barring a system whereby all Congressional representatives are voted on by all citizens of a state, there will be discretion used in creating districts. Those in power will have the discretion. In the apportionment following the 2000 census, California lost a number of Republican seats and Texas lost a number of Democratic seats because the opposite party controlled the creation of Congressional districts. However, the liberals have pulled out the race card, so that Hispanics may have the chance to vote for white liberals like Ken Bentsen or Martin Frost rather than a white conservative.

Gerrymandering, like death and taxes, will always be with us, as long as legislatures have popularly elected representatives.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Hispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosing under the plan.

So it is fine if white Republicans are disadvantaged? That's unequal treatment. It seems wrong to see them as a group rather than as individuals. In voting, shouldn't it breaks down to equal individuals with different ideologies, not various voting blocks with equal representation.

[napscoordinator]

The Rats pick up a seat? Big deal.

Doesn't that mean they only need to win 14 seats now to be majority in the House? I don't find that good at all.

[P-Marlowe]

Justices had been told that was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting rights.

If the basis for the violation lies in the Voting Rights Act, then the violation is of the Voting Rights Act and not the constitution. It sounds as if they were arguing that the Voting Rights Act is a part of the constitution.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Hispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosing under the plan.

Since when are "hispanics" considered a "race"? My next door neighbor is the hispanic son of aa former illegal alien and if they put the two of us up in a line up to pick out the "hispanic" there is no doubt that I would be the one picked. He's blond haired and blue eyed. I'm not. A large percentage of "hispanics" are of the caucasian race. A large percentage of "hispanics" are black. Being "hispanic" is not an immutable characteristic. It should not be a "protected class" any more than being from Maryland. It is simply a generalized geographical statement of heritage.

[AntiGuv]

I hope for their sakes that both Frost and Marchant were at the gym or sleeping when this news broke. I don't think their hearts could have taken it.

hehe .. we might have some more breaking news soon. ;^)

So, getting back to TX-23, you probably cannot redraw those lines to restore that many Latino voters without redrawing at least: TX-23 (Bonilla -R), TX-28 (Cuellar -D), TX-25 (Doggett -D), TX-15 (Hinojosa -D), TX-21 (Smith -R), TX-11 (Conaway -R), and perhas TX-20 (Gonzalez -D) and TX-27 (Ortiz -D).

The big questions of course are how soon it has to get done and how drastic the remedy will be. It may very well be that the impact is limited to Bonilla/Cuellar, or it may be that the effects ripple across multiple other South Texas districts.

[mrsmith]

"The Rats pick up a seat?"

Well, maybe.

Redrawing the one district may possibly be done in a way that changes another so it is less likely to vote Dem.

[jveritas]

Republicans picked up six Texas congressional seats two years ago, and the court's ruling does not seriously threaten those gains. Lawmakers, however, will have to adjust boundary lines to address the court's concerns.

OK we won this one :)

[hispanarepublicana]

Not so much. Bonilla is a darned good congressman. This may cost him his seat.

[AntiGuv]

PS. And if it were the case that the lines do revert back to something very close to the pre-2004 lines, then you'd almost surely have the lines shifting over in the Houston area as well. There's just no way to be sure until they start looking at how to restore the old TX-23 Bonilla district. If all those border districts end up close to what they were before, then the impact will stretch across the whole southern half of the map.

That's the point I've been trying to get across from the beginning. It may just be one district, but if you have to drastically redraw one district then of course you have to redraw the districts around it, and perhaps the districts around that, and so on. Until it's clear how much TX-23 has to get redrawn there's no way to be sure how widespread the political impact.

[hispanarepublicana]

That's the point I've been trying to get across from the beginning. It may just be one district, but if you have to drastically redraw one district then of course you have to redraw the districts around it, and perhaps the districts around that, and so on. Until it's clear how much TX-23 has to get redrawn there's no way to be sure how widespread the political impact.

I agree. Your post is spot-on. You can't redraw districts in without impacting others, especially in low-density population areas like Bonilla's.

[rahbert]

Its probably a blessing that the SC danced around this as
lightly as they did, leaving no precedent for a future court to go interventionist on us and mandate all sorts
of "adjustments". Leaving this in the Legislative branch
is the best possible outcome.

[jveritas]

You and antiguv are spinning this worse than AP. It is a victory, period.

[new yorker 77]

The LYING MSM is trying to portray this aas a victory for libs.

The Republicans won.

The part of this ruling regarding changing some of the map is going to be changed by guess who THE RREPUBLICAN CONTROLLED STATE SENATE.

NICE TRY LIBS.

[AntiGuv]

Here is the Texas redistricting ruling. I've only skimmed the Kennedy plurality so far, but there's nothing that suggests to me that the re-re-redistricting can be postponed until next year. Unless I've overlooked something, the TX-23 district has simply been invalidated and the case remanded to the lower courts. I'd say the odds are exceptional that the lower courts will require (or impose) a fix this year, consistent with precedent.

[new yorker 77]

What a horrible loss?

Republicans get everything and they get to control the minor changes that need to be made.

[AntiGuv]

In my experience, the AP is routinely and totally ignorant of how redistricting works and of how redistricting law operates.

[jveritas]

Yes :) but some freepers are so full of hate against President Bush and the Republican Party that they simply do not want to see any Republican victory whatsoever, and they call themselves conservatives. SHAME!

[new yorker 77]

You can twist yourself like a pretzel on this if you want. Any literate individual can see the big WIN here.

[cspackler]

Letting nine robes run our nation......... Who voted for them?

You vote for the person that nominates them, and the people that approve said nomination. That is the single most important reason to always vote conservative.