Court To Texas: Parts of Voting Map Are Flawed

In yet-another 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court rules that a controversial redistricting map ushered through the Texas legislature by former US Rep. Tom DeLay is politically gerrymandered, based on the equal protection clause. Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy notes that for the District 23, the "lines [amount] to vote dilution... [R]edistricting prevented the immediate success of the emergent Latino majority in District 23, [therefore] there was a denial of opportunity in the real sense of that term." The Dallas-area redistricting was not judged a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

On the larger issue of how often a state can redraw its districts, the Court noted that responsibility lies with the legislature. However, "[w]hen Texas did not enact a plan to comply with the one-person, one-vote requirement under the 2000 census, the District Court found it necessary to draw a redistricting map on its own." Nevertheless, the job is the state's and if the state wants to do so more than the required once-per-decade, so be it.

The Court appears to tacitly endorse gerrymandering with this statement: "The legislature does seem to have decided to redistrict with the sole purpose of achieving a Republican congressional majority, but partisan aims did not guide every line it drew." In other words, because a few lines weren't partisan, one good apple made the bad bushel good.

If anyone believes that these districts aren't gerrymandered, just go look at the map. Focus on District 19, for example, especially the 108th Congress versus the 109th Congress. Look at Districts 15 and 25 .... see how District 10 changed between the court-drawn map and the legislative map.

From a reader: check out Austin.

Notes From The Real World points to a Washington Post story from 2005: "Eight department staffers, including the heads of the Voting Rights Division, objected to the [Texas] redistricting map."

Decision, League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (pdf)

See Gerrymandering, Texas Style, Beyond gerrymandering and Texas posses: US electoral reform, The Great Election Grab, High Court Allows Texas Gerrymandering, Texas Quick Facts

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