[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Editorial: Rethinking Texas's Redistricting

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Editorial: Rethinking Texas's Redistricting

October 22, 2004
 


 

The Supreme Court stepped into Texas' redistricting mess
this week, telling a lower court to reconsider its ruling
upholding the state's new Congressional districts. The
court's action comes too late to change the lines for next
month's election. But it raises the welcome possibility
that the current Congressional districts, which were
redrawn in an unusual mid-decade redistricting, will
eventually be declared unconstitutional. It also gives hope
that the court will become more willing to strike down
legislative districts that are gerrymandered for blatantly
political reasons. 

After the 2000 census, Texas redrew its Congressional
lines, as it was required to, to reflect population shifts.
But in 2003, after Republicans took control of the state
government, they redistricted again, drawing new lines that
broke up safe Democratic seats and swooping around the
state to scoop up Republican voters - all to increase the
Republican share of the Texas Congressional delegation. 

The redistricting fight became so bitter that Democratic
legislators fled the state, hiding out in neighboring
Oklahoma, and the Republicans sent state troopers after
them. Earlier this month, the House ethics committee
admonished the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, for
telling Federal Aviation Administration officials to look
for the missing Democrats. 

The Democrats filed a lawsuit charging that the
redistricting, which is expected to cost as many as five
incumbent Democrats their seats in Congress, was
unconstitutional. A special three-judge federal court sided
with the Republicans. But this week, the Supreme Court
directed the three-judge court to reconsider its ruling in
light of Vieth v. Jubelirer, a Pennsylvania redistricting
case that the Supreme Court decided last spring. 

The Supreme Court rejected that challenge to Pennsylvania's
Congressional redistricting. But Justice Anthony Kennedy,
who cast the deciding vote, said that if partisan
gerrymandering was sufficiently "invidious," it could
violate the Constitution. By sending the Texas case back,
the court is suggesting that the Texas Republicans' actions
may meet Justice Kennedy's standard. 

This year, thanks to partisan gerrymandering, there are
only a small number of competitive Congressional races
around the country, despite the deep divisions in the
electorate. District lines have been painstakingly drawn to
protect incumbents, and to help the party with control over
the process. 

When the lower court rethinks its decision in the Texas
redistricting case, it will have a perfect opportunity to
start drawing a reasonable line for when partisan
line-drawing has gone too far. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/opinion/22fri2.html?ex=1099496914&ei=1&en=a14425935582318b


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