Supreme Court rules on redistricting
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday, Jan. 20, that interim redistricting maps drawn by a federal three-judge panel in San Antonio may not be used for the 2012 elections.
The high court unanimously ordered the panel to redraw the temporary maps based on the ones originally drafted by the state’s GOP-led Legislature. The justices, however, gave the San Antonio judges the authority to draw new boundaries in areas where there is a “reasonable probability” that the Legislature’s maps would violate the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The ongoing legal battle may force the primary elections to be delayed again. They have already been pushed back from March 6 to April 3.
The delay in the process has also caused much confusion regarding candidate filing, as there are currently no set districts, leaving it unclear who is eligible to run and where they should campaign.
This latest ruling is viewed as somewhat of a victory for both parties.
Republican Rep. Ken Legler is enthusiastic about the decision.
“This is a monumental rebuke to the judicial activism by the federal judges in San Antonio,” Legler said. “While I am very pleased that the maps adopted by two of the three judges were thrown out, I am guardedly optimistic because the new maps are yet to be drawn, and the order did not address filing or primary timeframes.”
Conversely, Harris County Democratic Party Chair Lane Lewis remains hopeful the new maps will still reflect the state’s growing Hispanic population.
“Every court that has looked at the Republican gerrymandered maps has smelled something fishy,” Lewis said. “The Supreme Court did not dismiss the court-drawn maps that returned fair play to the voters, they simply said that they wanted the San Antonio court to be more clear as to how they arrived at their conclusions. We are confident the San Antonio court will accomplish this.”
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