August 27, 2003
Redistricting Updates from Off the Kuff
By Byron LaMasters
Yeah, I'm just getting back into the routine, here in Austin, so I'll be back to covering the details of the redistricting fight soon, but for now, Charles has great coverage. Today, the Democratic lawsuit saying that Republicans intent to change the two-thirds rule was a violation of the Voting Rights Act was considered to be a poor case by a federal judge, but it will be reviewed by a three judge panel anyway.
Charles also has all the details about the Democratic senators planned and cancelled trip to Laredo, the ruling from the Justice Department and the latest polling numbers across the state. So check it out over there.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at August 27, 2003 02:27 PM
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He didn't call the case frivolous. He said it isn't "wholly frivolous", though he's inclined to rule against it on the merits. If it were frivolous, then he'd have dismissed it outright.
Yeah, I read that wrong. Thanks, I corrected it.
The "two-thirds rule" is Texas Senate Rule 5.13, which requires a two-thirds vote to take up bills out of order. No one has ever suggested changing, abolishing, or disregarding this rule. In fact, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst never suggested changing ANY rules, which is a key reason why the Voting Rights Act isn't implicated and why the DOJ ruled no preclearance is needed.
All that was going to be done was to dispense with the charade of having a bogus "blocker-bill" reported out of committee to sit atop the calendar and artificially trigger Rule 5.13 for every piece of legislation. In other words, by refusing to engage in the traditional manipulation of the rules as written, and by instead following them to the letter as written, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst was putting the Senate back into "simple majority can win" mode.
This may seem like quibbling, but the formulation is important because Texans and most other Americans have an inherent suspicion of "changing the rules," and that's of course exactly what the Dem Senators' spin-meisters have been playing on. It just didn't hold up at DOJ, and it didn't fool Judge Kazen today.
Best regards (and Hook 'em!)
