At Findlaw, Mark Posner writes Evidence of Political Manipulation at the Justice Department: How Tom DeLay’s Redistricting Plan Avoided Voting Rights Act Disapproval. A snippet: “in this column, I’ll argue that this is not a case of an honest disagreement between lawyers. Rather, there is strong objective evidence that politics prevailed over the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.”
Over at the National Review Online, Abigail Thernstrom and Edward Blum write Gerrymander Slander: Democrats cry foul on Texas redistricting. A snippet: “Minority voting strength was not, in fact, reduced as a consequence of the new districting lines. Under the old map, Texas sent two black representatives to the U.S. House of Representatives, one from Houston, the other from Dallas. The new plan added a third black district, and raised the number of majority Hispanic districts from seven to eight.” And this concession/prediction: “We are happy to concede that the pre-clearance provision of the Voting Rights Act has become a partisan gerrymandering tool that has been used by both parties to further their electoral interests. All the more reason to question the continuing need for that temporary, emergency provision 35 years after it was initially scheduled to expire. But almost no one in Congress is questioning it, and most observers believe the provision will be renewed once again — for another 25 years.”