Texas court denies privilege for congressional redistricting conversations

Yesterday, the federal court handling most of the mammoth Texas redistricting litigation denied a motion by members of Congress to prevent disclosure of their conversations to the Texas legislators conducting redistricting. Michael Li, who’s been following all of the back and forth, has an analysis here … but the upshot is that since redistricting is conducted by the state legislature, federal legislators couldn’t claim the protection of the Speech or Debate Clause.

More on all of the redistricting litigation around the country, here.

UPDATE: For those who want to see just a slice of the documentary record of how the redistricting sausage is made (which is itself a tiny slice of how the redistricting sausage is actually made), I’ve linked to the disclosed documents here.

Among the usual horse trades: a request to “pluck the campus” of Hockaday School out of one district and into another because that’s where a Congressman’s grandchildren are in class, and a request to slide one precinct from district to district because that’s where the San Antonio Country Club is.

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