Rick,
  Yes, but preclearance should be easy in light of
1)  the fact that with considerable evidence of racially discriminatory 
intent and effect, even some retrogression (which I provided), the DOJ 
precleared the switch to at-large election of judges in Monterey county, 
after Lopez had been up to the Supreme Court twice;
2)  the strong retrogressive intent and effect standards of Bossier I and II.
  The more interesting issue would be what would happen if the judges' 
plan sliced and diced Assembly districts in the four covered counties, 
eliminating a district now effectively controlled by Latino voters in an 
effort to make it "competitive."  Beer would seem to preclude that, but if 
the changes produced more Republicans, I think the State would have no more 
trouble getting it precleared by political appointees in DOJ than De Lay's 
2003 Texas congressional remap did, a decision rumored to have overruled an 
extensive DOJ staff analysis.  The preclearance process has been so tainted 
by the partisanship of that preclearance decision and so weakened by the 
Bossier decisions that it has few teeth anymore, unless someone finds a way 
to write GA v. Ashcroft into DOJ regulations and reduce the control of the 
non-civil service appointees.
  You can post this if you feel like it.
Morgan

At 04:55 PM 2/1/2005 -0800, you wrote:
>A student in my election law class asked me whether California must
>seek preclearance if it changes its method of redistricting to a non-
>partisan commission.  The governor has proposed a state constitutional
>amendment to make such a change.  Does Lopez v. Monterey County require
>such prelearance?
>
>Rick

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-- 
Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
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