High court throws out Texas election map

[Lone_Star_Dem]

The Supreme Court has thrown out electoral maps drawn by federal judges in Texas that favored minorities. The unsigned opinion Friday left the fate of Texas' April primaries unclear.


The justices ordered the three-judge court in San Antonio to come up with new plans, but did not compel the use of maps created by Texas' Republican-dominated state legislature. Only Justice Clarence Thomas said he would have gone that far

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/High-court-throws-out-Texas-election-map-2643814.php

Link to PDF of decision here: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/us/20120121-texas.pdf

We have no idea when we're going to be having our primaries now. Or who is going to be running for which ever offices exist when all this is over.

VWM (Voting While Minority) may not be an official crime in Texas, but it is highly discouraged.

[OKNancy]

1. That's terrible

I need to go find a story with more detail. The one linked doesn't tell us the Court's reasons.

Here we go: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/supreme-court-rejects-judge-drawn-maps-in-texas-redistricting-case/

The justices said the lower court had not paid enough deference to the Legislature’s choices and had improperly substituted its own values for those of elected officials.

“To avoid being compelled to make such otherwise standardless decisions,” the Supreme Court’s unsigned decision said, “a district court should take guidance from the state’s recently enacted plan in drafting an interim plan. That plan reflects the state’s policy judgments on where to place new districts and how to shift existing ones in response to massive population growth.”

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. Thanks

The decision was just reported and I was having difficulty finding sources.

Appreciate the link!

[onenote]

3. It was a per curiam decision and its a pretty narrow ruling

There is a link to the opinion on the right hand side of the Supreme Court's homepage: http://www.supremecourt.gov/

[Hugabear]

8. Translation

The justices said the lower court had not paid enough deference to the Legislature’s choices and had improperly substituted its own values for those of elected officials.

Translation:

The justices said the lower court had not paid enough deference to the Legislature's racist beliefs and had improperly substituted a fair plan that gave more voice to a rising minority population

There, fixed it for ya.

[FBaggins]

10. That's unlikely.

It was a unanimous opinion.

Whenever you get all nine of these justices to agree on something... you can't assume that it's a wink/nod to the right wing.

The Texas court apparently went beyond identifying and correcting the districts which they thought violated the standards... and instead acted as if they were empowered to draw ALL of the districts based on their own notion of "the public good".

They don't have that authority.


BTW - I don't think that this means that they can't go right back and fix the districts that are in violation of some standard. They just can't draw the entire state.

[AndyTiedye]

4. Thus Guaranteeing that Texas Remains a 1-Party State for At Least Another 50 Years

[LanternWaste]

7. I believe it simply means that the court will have to re-draw

I believe it simply means that the court will have to re-draw its apportionment map, guaranteeing nothing....

[onehandle]

5. Now can we let Texas secede? nt

[LanternWaste]

6. No...

No. Contrary to popular mythology, TX has no legal right to secede. Additionally, many of us who live here believe that things change through action rather than reaction, and that TX may yet again become a predominantly Democratic state.

[Ter]

15. Once it happens, it becomes legal

In a way at least.

[ceile]

9. What now?!

Let the judges draw again and have the SC reject it again? This could go on forever...

[FBaggins]

11. Redraw without ovestepping their authority.

If there are a few districts that they believe violate a given standard, then redraw those and leave the rest of the state alone.

[LanternWaste]

12. The biggest problem I see is that even now, many residents...

The biggest problem I see is that even now, many residents of (and candidates in) TX are unaware of what district they will vote in/run for. Primaries are have already been delayed, and there's concern that we may experience another delay-- which is costing the state a LOT of money, and the candidate themselves are beginning to complain that it's costing their campaigns money too.

So I'm pretty sure that sooner rather than later, a court-drawn map will get accepted and put into place. All in all, once it hit the courts, the process has been expedited. So maybe another three(?) weeks before another map is considered and three weeks for another ruling.

[tawadi]

13. It probably won't be complete by April. eom

[DeathToTheOil]

14. K'd & R'd

Sorry, didn't see it.