"New Justice May Play Role in Gerrymander Case"

[GreenPartyVoter]

Some time early this fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will make a monumental decision, which could dramatically affect congressional politics. The court will decide whether or not to take a serious, detailed look at Tom DeLay’s 2003 gerrymander (search) of the Texas congressional delegation.

The threshold issue being determined involves whether the court will accept the case and set it down for oral argument during its 2005-06 term. If the court agrees to hear the case and if the court ultimately throws out DeLay’s plan-- which netted House Republicans six seats during the 2004 elections-- the ripple effect will be far-reaching indeed.

Plaintiffs from Texas are challenging the plan as being an illegal political gerrymander. The court during its last term took a look at the case and sent it back to a three-judge constitutional court in Texas for further review. That three-judge court (two Republicans and one Democrat) had initially approved the plan but the Supreme Court asked the lower court to take a second look in light of a recent Supreme Court case from Pennsylvania on the same subject. The three judge court held additional hearings on the matter and then rubber stamped its earlier decision.

The case from Pennsylvania dealt with a similar dramatic change in Congressional districts, which netted Republicans additional seats in the 2002 elections. In that case, the court split 4-4-1 and upheld the Republican plan. Four justices said the court should not even consider political gerrymandering cases, four judges said the court should, and one justice (Kennedy) said it was theoretically possible for the court to consider such a challenge if the proper standard could be determined but that the Pennsylvania case was not an appropriate one for action by the court.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163612,00.html