Supreme Court Rejects Judgermandering

It looks like somebody remembered that the Constitutions (of Texas and the US) don’t say that judges get the important decisions and the Legislatures get the unimportant ones. I do wish the SCOTUS had said “hands off,” but this is better than nothing.

A second map was then drawn by a panel of federal judges in San Antonio, and seemed to favor Democrats through its deference to the state’s booming Hispanic population.



via Supreme Court sends judge-drawn maps back in Texas redistricting case – The Hill's Ballot Box.

The only “minority” the map San Antonio Federal District judges favored was the minority Party, the Dems. They actually created a brand new District! Don’t forget that the Democrats were the Party that discriminated in the first place.

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram:

The ruling is a blow to Texas Democrats who had cheered late last year when a San Antonio federal court released new legislative and congressional maps that were widely seen as less favorable to Republicans.

The Justices said that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a key provision often pointed to by minority groups in redistricting cases, could not be used as a way to ignore the plans approved by state lawmakers just because federal approval had not yet been achieved.

“Section 5 prevents a state plan from being implemented if it has not been precleared,” the Justices ruled. “But that does not mean that the plan is of no account or that the policy judgments it reflects can be disregarded by a district court drawing an interim plan. On the contrary, the state plan serves as a starting point for the district court.”

Our Republican Legislators include “minorities.” The judges ignored that all minorities turned more toward the Republicans in 2010.