Federal Judges Mess With Texas GOP's Discriminatory Redistricting Maps

Because of a sorry history of discriminatory election practices aimed at POC's, Texas is one of the 1965 Voting Rights Act states that must submit any changes in voting practices to be "precleared" by either the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division or the D.C. District Court before those changes can take effect.

Translation: no redistricting maps exist or voting policy changes are legit until either the DOJ or US District Court signs off on them. 

It's why Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) elected to bypass a Justice Department review they perceived as unfriendly and attempted to push their jacked up GOP map into DC District Court presuming he'd get a friendlier hearing than trying to clear it through the Obama Administration's DOJ Civil Rights Division. 

Yesterday that gambit blew up in AG Abbott's face.  A three judge panel agreed with the Justice Department that the GOP dominated Texas Legislature used an improper standard for measuring minority voting strength and refused to clear the maps.  

The panel was made up of two judges appointed by former President GW Bush and one by President Obama and stated Texas "used an improper standard or methodology to determine which districts afford minority voters the ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice."

The stakes are high in this political battle because the Democrats only need to pick up 25 seats across the country to flip control of the House back into their hands next year.  Texas started this redistricting cycle with 32 congressional seats but thanks to the explosive growth of Latinos and the Hurricane Katrina evacuees from Louisiana that stayed in Houston and Dallas we picked up four additional congressional districts..

"Today's ruling supports what leaders of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus have been saying for months — the Republican Leadership discriminated against minorities by seeking to grow their political influence in the halls of Congress and the Texas House while ignoring the demographic reality of those responsible for our state's population growth," said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D), chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, which argued against the maps.

The Republicans thanks to the 2003 Delaymandered maps have a 23-9 edge and were seeking to pick up at least three of the four new seats when they drew the 2012 congressional map despite minority communities being responsible for the population growth that enable Texas to pick up the additional seats in the first place.    

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) attempted to argue that the GOP drawn congressional map increased the opportunity districts for minorities from 8 to 10.  The US argued that it was already at 10 

The three judge panel also rejected the GOP proposed map for the 150 member Texas House in which the Justice Department argued that minority districts are reduced from 50 to 45. The state of Texas asserted that the number of minority districts would increase from 41 to 42.  

And to hit the redistricting rejection trifecta, the court also rejected the proposed GOP map for the Texas Senate.

This clears the way for what will be a lengthy federal trial that will take place in Washington DC on the question of determining if the Texas redistricting plan reduces opportunity for minority representation (well, duh).

Because the GOP map is being contested, another federal three judge panel based in San Antonio will get busy drafting interim district maps for at least the Texas House and congressional districts for the upcoming 2012 election.  

Those interim maps should not only be fairer to non-white Texans, but give us a chance to pick up at least three of the four new seats that our population growth over the last decade helped the Lone Star State earn.  

This attempted Texas GOP end run around the DOJ Civil Rights Division also demonstrates and reaffirms why the 1965 Voting Rights Act is a critical tool for the protection of the voting rights of minorities and why the conservafools hate it.

It also reaffirms why I'm going to be standing in line to vote for President Obama's reelection on November 6 next year and voting out every politician with an (R) behind their name.. .  .