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June 28, 2006
An Interesting Day
By now, of course, most folks know the United States Supreme Court ruled today on the controversial Texas redistricting plan. The court upheld most of the Tom DeLay-engineered plan, but did invalidate the 23rd Congressional District, currently represented by Henry Bonilla.
As we speculated, Justice Anthony Kennedy was the court's deciding vote, clearly continuing to relish his role as the "swing" jurist at SCOTUS. His decision on this matter, as in previous redistricting cases, defies easy categorization. In short, though Kennedy upheld the right of legislatures to engage in mid-decade redistricting, and denied most of the Texas Democratic plaintiffs' claims, he did cry foul over CD 23, and left open the possibility of future "justiceable" cases against partisan gerrymandering without defining any justiceable standard.
Some may call Kennedy's parsing careful, considered jurisprudence over a difficult issue; others a cop-out that takes the narrowest track possible, conveniently preserving Kennedy's ability to break possible future tie votes. (Two recent Jeffrey Toobin articles in the New Yorker make clear Kennedy quite likes his make or break position on the Court.)
The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza notes redistricting winners and losers in The Fix. One clear Texas winner who didn't make Cillizza's column -- Richard Raymond.
Raymond is a talented Democratic state representative from the Laredo area who will almost certainly emerge as a strong Congressional contender, given the Court's ruling. Kuff highlights Raymond's strong statement after the announced decision.
Today's Supreme Court decision was a mixed bag. While essentially only one Congressional district was ruled invalid, any lower court remedy to the 23rd will have some ripple effect to other districts. The breadth of that ripple remains to be seen.
One important point for our partisan Republican friends to consider: allowing mid-decade redistricting cuts both ways. So don't be surprised if some states controlled by Democrats begin making map changes of their own. Hey, if you want to play this way...
Posted by houtopia at June 28, 2006 10:22 PM