Burnt Orange Report

Testimony took about 4 hours. Solicitor General Ted Cruz argued the case for the state. The plaintiff lawyers, plus UT Prof Scot Powe, took turns.

Powe's "one man one vote" arguments made the biggest impression with the justices. Powe, in fact, closed out the plaintiffs' arguments.

Judges took it under advisement and said, basically, "Let's not meet again, okay?"

For his part, Cruz served the state well and was well-versed on the case. He's a two-time national debating champ and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. And was Rehnquist's law clerk. And a bunch of agency work. Okay, I'm beginning to feel a bit intimidated. And really really old.

Good article by Byron and excellent post by Kimberly! Thank you. I still find it all a bit confusing and can't imagine the court overturning the DeLay redistricting scheme, given the politics of the situation.

However, I must say that I would have to believe modern redistricting, using computer modeling and intended to guarantee incumbency once the "right" party wins, is a violation of the 14th Amendment. Voters are, in effect, being denied a real vote. Moreover, the House of Representatives, the so-called "Peoples' House," no longer deserves that name. House reelection rates across the country have reached Stalinist levels. Alternatively, to use a British metaphor, the House of Representatives has become a veritable House of Lords. What do we do about this? I imagine that politics will prevent anything from being done about this. The most equitable solution might to be create truly nonpartisan redistricting boards in all 50 states. Yet, that hardly seems likely.

Your only hope is to get a partisan gerrymandering claim that is also a 14th amendment violation . . . in otherwirds, the majority will has to be defied now and in the future. Texas has all of the indicators except one: defying the majority will.

Byron,

Thanks for cross-posting that. I actually made the PSR report from my office. I'd intended to post to BOR from there, but I didn't have my pw saved on that computer.