Will the Texas legislature be called into special
session for redistricting, or will the US District
Court redraw the lines? I guess if anyone knew the
answer to this, now, it would have been in the news
stories.
--- rkgaddie@ou.edu wrote:
---------------------------------
District 23 cannot be redrawn without substantially
affecting district 28. You'll want to make Webb
County whole in this process. That makes District 28
non-contiguous, so you will have to redraw 25 as well.
District 11 and 21 will also be affected in the
process.
One alternative is to reinstitute old district 23, and
then look for how the chips fall. I'll be playing with
this today.
You could end up with a district wrapping arouns San
Antonio that is of an indeterminant composition. The
problem is that you can't keep all the "Slot Cars" in
the valley and also reconstitute old 23. A district
will have to migrate toward San Antonio.
_____________________________
Ronald Keith Gaddie
Professor of Political Science
The University of Oklahoma
455 West Lindsey Street, Room 222
Norman, OK 73019-2001
Phone 405-325-4989
Fax 405-325-0718
E-mail: rkgaddie@ou.edu
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/G/Ronald.K.Gaddie-1
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael McDonald <mmcdon@gmu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:04 am
Subject: RE: Texas case decided
The decision is here (Rick beat me to this):
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/05-204.pdf
Like I suspect everyone else, I am pouring over the
document. No
presumption that mid-decade redistricting is
un-constitutional and
currentfederal prohibition. The Court is going to
require that
the Hispanic
population of District 23 be increased, that the
current (and then
new)District 25 was not a substitution for
decreasing the Hispanic
population of
District 23. This map may be useful to some:
http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/pdf/c1374/map.pdf
It's not clear that District 23 can be redrawn
without substantively
affecting District 28, perhaps even to the point of
forcing
Cuellar (D-28)
and Bonilla (R-23) to run against one another. If
that is the
case, I
suspect there will be a dramatic reorganization of
the south part
of Texas
to make sure that the political damage is minimized.
Worst case
scenariofor the Democrats: If the Republicans so
choose, they
could redistrict the
entire state, while manipulating the difference
between the 2000
census and
current population growth to shore up any
potentially vulnerable
Republicansand try to upset some Democratic
incumbents; not to
neglect the Katrina
victims in Houston that need to be considered. The
Supreme Court
has said
re-redistricting is permissible and since Texas has
to redistrict
anyway,why not?
_____
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu] On Behalf
Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 10:17 AM
To: election-law
Subject: Texas case decided
Breaking News: Supreme Court Rejects Texas Partisan
Gerrymandering
Claim;Strikes Down Texas District 24 as Voting
Rights Act Violation
See this
<http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/06/decisions_4.html>
early report from Lyle Denniston, who says the Court
did not conclude
whether these cases are non-justiciable. He also
says the court
rejected a
challenge to mid-decade redistricting. If Monday is
any guide, it
may be up
to an hour before the opinion actually becomes
available in
electronic form
to read. As soon as I have a link, I'll post it, and
analysis will
followonce I've had a chance to read the set of
opinions.
--
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466 - voice
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
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