Tue Apr 22, 2014, 11:49 AM

Lawsuit seeks redrawing of Texas Senate districts

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Two Texans backed by a conservative legal group have filed a federal lawsuit in Austin challenging how state Senate voting districts were drawn.

The Austin American-Statesman reports (http://bit.ly/1lzDnvv ) the Project on Fair Representation wants a judge to cancel results of the March primaries, which used Senate boundaries drawn by the Legislature in 2013.

The group wants Texas lawmakers to draw new districts. The plaintiffs are voters in two Senate districts - Tyler and Houston areas.

The case filed Monday argues the way districts were drawn is unconstitutional for being based on total population. The suit says only eligible voters should be considered.

The group's director, Ed Blum, helped lead the Fisher vs. University of Texas affirmative action case challenging using race in university admissions heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

http://www.kltv.com/story/25309120/lawsuit-seeks-redrawing-of-texas-senate-districts

[font color=green]This lawsuit doesn't appear to be headed anywhere. Why should two specific Senate districts be allowed to use a different standard for determining the alignment of boundary lines compared to the other 29 Texas Senate districts?[/font]

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3 replies	Author	Time	Post
Lawsuit seeks redrawing of Texas Senate districts (Original post)	TexasTowelie	Apr 2014	OP
The theory of this case has been rejected in other cases in the 5th Cir.	Gothmog	Apr 2014	#1
Thanks for weighing in on this thread.	TexasTowelie	Apr 2014	#2
Because - all together now:	COLGATE4	Apr 2014	#3

Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Tue Apr 22, 2014, 11:58 AM

Gothmog (91,103 posts)

1. The theory of this case has been rejected in other cases in the 5th Cir.

The lawyers bringing this case are the same lawyers involved in the Shelby County case and basically the goal of this case is to reduce the number of minority districts in Texas or to dilute minority districts. Michael Li as a good explanation of this case http://txredistricting.org/post/83485633267/the-new-suit-over-the-texas-senate-map-an-explainer

The theory of this case has been litigated before and rejected.

In Lepak v. City of Irving, the lawyers in the Texas senate case - also backed by the Project for Fair Representation - represented Irving residents in arguing that the city’s new single-member council district map was unconstitutional because it had been drawn using total population rather than CVAP.

Both the district court and the Fifth Circuit ruled against the Irving plaintiffs, citing the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Chen v. City of Houston, which held that the question of whether to use total population or CVAP was a political question and thus not reviewable by courts.

The Irving plaintiffs sought to have the decision reviewed by the Supreme Court, but the high court declined last April to take the case.

However, the Texas senate case potentially represents another opportunity to have the Supreme Court take up the issue since any appeal would go directly to the Supreme Court as a matter of right.

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Response to Gothmog (Reply #1)

Tue Apr 22, 2014, 12:03 PM

TexasTowelie (80,303 posts)

2. Thanks for weighing in on this thread.

It's nice to know that on DU we can find a good lawyer when we need one.

BTW, congratulations on getting to your 10,000th post. I'm still lagging behind you, but when I get there I have a feeling it might be something about catnip!

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Response to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Tue Apr 22, 2014, 12:20 PM

COLGATE4 (14,435 posts)

3. Because - all together now:

IOKIYAR

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