Breaking News: Texas Going to U.S. Supreme Court to Block Redistricting Plan [corrected title]

Correction and Update:  The press release issued today indicates that the state plans to seek a stay as to the state redistricting plans, which were finalized Friday.  There is no mention of seeking a stay as to the Congressional plan. The court issued its ruling on the congressional plan a few hours ago, and I expect there will be a stay request as to that as well.  Sorry about the error.  The original post is below.

 

 

The state’s press release is here, and it announces Paul Clement as part of Texas’s legal team.  The three judge court adopted the congressional plan it announced as tentative on Wednesday without any changes.  Judge Smith dissented.  See the opinions here.  (There were also opinions with a dissent on the state legislative plans, and those too may get brought to SCOTUS in the near future.)

The congressional plan adopted by the three-judge court in San Antonio (because of the Court’s failure to obtain preclearance in time from a three-judge court in DC) is seen to benefit Democrats, and partisan politics is the subtext for this voting rights challenge.

Judge Smith in his dissent raises some meaty (and thorny) Supreme Court questions, but I am not at all sure the Court would want to wade into this now, on such a truncated time frame (filing for the congressional seats is Monday, unless blocked by a Supreme Court stay) and for these lines which will just be used in these elections.

The Court majority also took a dig at Texas, explaining that it likely would not have been in this mess had it applied to DOJ for preclearance rather than bypassing DOJ and going instead to a three-judge court.

To keep up on all things related to this case, follow Texas Redistricting.

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