Supreme Court won't shield Texas legislators from testifying in redistricting lawsuit
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to prevent Texas state legislators from answering questions in a lawsuit over the state’s plan for drawing new congressional and legislative district boundaries.
Without explanation, as is its usual practice, the court turned away an emergency appeal from the state, which sought an order blocking a federal judge from forcing three GOP members of the Texas House to appear for depositions. Their testimony is sought in a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department and civil rights groups who say the Voting Rights Act requires the state to create more districts where a majority of voters are racial minorities.
Texas said that requiring three Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives — Reps. Ryan Guillen, Brooks Landgraf and John Lujan — to answer questions in a deposition would violate the immunity and privilege long accorded to legislators. Deposing them would “probe the very inner workings of the legislative process, examining the legislators’ thoughts, impressions, and motivations for their legislative acts,” the state argued.
But the Justice Department said it routinely seeks testimony from state legislators who represent challenged districts. The legal privilege against having to testify about legislative decisions is a qualified one, the federal government said, so the state House members should be required to appear for their depositions and can assert the privilege in response to specific questions.
One of the three, Lujan, wasn’t even a member of the Legislature when the new district map was drawn, so his claim of a privilege is even weaker, the government lawyers said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-wont-shield-texas-legislators-testifying-redistricting-l-rcna30197
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