Burnt Orange Report

I'm not sure I get your point, Jim. The guide is definitely intended to help whoever is burdened with redistricting work their way through the intricate labrynth of the Voting Rights Act while meeting its incredibly strict, arcane provisions. My favorite is that the VRA goes even beyond disparate outcome and states that a map which is legal today, but can be shown to tend toward a disparate outcome prior to the next census is disallowed!

Are you mistaking this as some sort of guide to evading the intent of the VRA? If so, you need to look closer at it.

Thanks for the link.

Assuming stare decisis, I can't see how the Republican redistricting map can hold, if only for the bizzare district running from Laredo to Hyde Park in Austin.

"If the members of the majority party in your State are prepared to let the minority party participate fully in the process of drawing redistricting plans, and simply out vote them when necessary, your State should be prepared to withstand a challenge that the plans unconstitutionally discriminate against the partisan minority."

I don't think this happened in Texas this time---only 1 of the 10 members of the Conference Committee, which drastically altered the plans submitted by the House and Senate, was a Democrat.

simply out vote them when necessary, your State should be prepared to withstand a challenge that the plans unconstitutionally discriminate against the partisan minority

"Simply out vote them"! So much for majority rule, the very foundation of democracy. Gawd...