Re-re-re-re-redistricting: More Redistricting Litigation On The Horizon

I hate to be the one to stand in the middle of the room and shout, “I TOLD YOU SO,” but I did note on at least one prior occasion that this was a distinct possibilty:

A Latino voting rights group might ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out Texas’ new congressional map, based on how many Latinos were removed from Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s Austin-area district.

Please, please take a deep breath and try to remain calm. Go to your happy place. Think of puppies and eating ice cream….it will be OK because:
This will not alter this election cycle.

It will require at least 12 more months of litigation, I’m sure before anyone is sitting down with their map colors.

The offending district is what caught me by surprise: Doggett’s CD-25:

Luis Vera, an attorney for LULAC, which was a party in the Supreme Court case, said the organization was “happy with a large part” of the judges’ changes last week. But LULAC is concerned about the reduction in Latino voters — 44 percent, down from 54 percent — in Doggett’s district under the new map.

“That may be a violation. . . . We are looking at it,” Vera said. If the group appeals, the case would be pushed directly to the Supreme Court, he said.

LULAC wants Texas to have seven Latino-majority districts, and an appeal would be a way for the organization to keep pushing the issue.

Vera said LULAC’s challenge, if it is pursued, would not affect November’s elections but would aim to set a better baseline for future redistricting.

“We’re going to be doing redistricting again in about four years or less,” Vera said. Without continuing to fight for the issue, “we will only have six districts.”

I don’t know about this. Frankly, I never realized (or failed to realize it or slept through the day that Todd Staples explained that to an empty Senate Chamber while everyone else was in New Mexico) Doggett’s “old” 25 (and by old, I mean not “2000 old,” or “2002 cycle old” but “2004 cycle through last Friday old”) was considered a Latino Opportunity District.

What this could mean, though, is that before this decade is out the state of Texas will have held Congressional elections under not one, not two, not three, not four—but FIVE DIFFERENT SETS OF CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS all because Tom DeLay wanted more Republicans in Congress.

I believe that there are one or more people out there writing books on Texas Redistricting who, I’m sure, just called their publishers and said “better hold off for another year.”

Thank you, Tom DeLay. We really appreciate what you’ve done for Texas.

Sharpen your map colors, kids. We’ll be re-re-re-redistricting right up until 2010.

{Just for a little more ironic fun: Republicans hate lawsuits. How many lawsuits have we had over redistricting? And, more fun than that: how many Republicans from Texas voted against the Voting Rights Act? Whose map violated the Voting Rights Act and was overturned? Come on now, say it with me: REPUBLICANS! Does this sound like a broken record to you yet?}

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