[EL] Shelby County and Texas redistricting

[Justin Levitt]

Following up on the post below (and Rick Pildes's email 
<http://department-lists.uci.edu/pipermail/law-election/2013-June/007241.html> 
this morning), an informed reader pointed out that the San Antonio 
federal court had actually issued an order 
<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxeOfQQnUr_gZDllOTY5ZDktNWE4My00ZWM4LWEwOTEtYTgxNmE5ODE3ODRh/edit?hl=en_US> 
enjoining the implementation of 2011 plans pending preclearance.

This means that in order to use the 2011 maps, Texas would have to ask 
the San Antonio court to lift its injunction -- which that court should 
now do after /Shelby County/, if the only grounds for the injunction 
were a pending preclearance decision.  Accordingly, earlier this morning 
<http://redistricting.lls.edu/files/TX/20130626%20motion%20to%20modify.pdf>, 
some of the Texas plaintiffs asked the court to modify its order, 
enjoining the implementation of 2011 plans on section 2 grounds instead 
(the San Antonio court still hasn't issued a ruling on the 
non-preclearance challenges to the original 2011 maps).

And, as mentioned a few times, the wrangling over the 2011 plan may 
become formally moot if the Governor signs the new plans into effect, 
though there's apparently uncertainty about whether he will do so.  And 
even if the Governor does sign the new plans, I'd still expect 
plaintiffs in a continuing challenge to _those_ plans to argue that the 
preclearance court's findings about intentional discrimination just two 
years ago on the same topic should inform an analysis of intentional 
discrimination today.

Justin

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	6/25/13 Shelby County wrap-up: news reports, columnists, 
advocacy organizations
Date: 	Tue, 25 Jun 2013 20:47:55 -0700
From: 	Justin Levitt <levittj at lls.edu>
To: 	law-election at UCI.EDU <law-election at UCI.EDU>


    Shelby County and Texas <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=52147>

Posted onJune 25, 2013 7:30 pm 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=52147>byJustin Levitt 
<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=4>

As usual,Michael Li <http://txredistricting.org/>breaks down 
theramifications of today's decision 
<http://txredistricting.org/post/53842655437/breaking-supreme-court-strikes-down-section-5-coverage>for 
all of the continuing controversy in Texas.

One of the curiosities: Texas redrew state and federal district lines in 
2011.  A DC federal court denied preclearance for those lines (which 
included findings ofintentional discrimination 
<http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13116118305322883110>, some 
(but not all) of which was based on a distinct burden of proof for 
preclearance).  Based on that denial, a San Antonio federal court drew 
interim lines for Texas districts (state and federal) in 2012.  The 
Texas legislature has since passed maps for 2014 and beyond, based in 
large part on the interim lines, which are still heavily contested by 
the San Antonio litigants.  But the Governor has not yet signed the new 
plans.  Which means that the 2011 maps are, at the moment, legally 
operative --- despite a federal court's finding that they were enacted 
with the intent to discriminate.

Gonna be an interesting couple weeks/months/years in Texas.

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-- 
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA  90015
213-736-7417
justin.levitt at lls.edu
ssrn.com/author=698321



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