From the New York Times

Texas G.O.P. Is Victorious in Remapping

January 7, 2004
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON, Jan. 6 — Republicans who redrew Texas Congressional districts last
fall in an effort to gain seats won a crucial victory on Tuesday when a
special three-judge federal panel in Austin found no constitutional grounds
to intervene.
Barring any action by the Supreme Court, the Congressional campaigns this
fall will be fought using the unfamiliar and sometimes tortuous new lines.
The judges ruled that there was no bar to mid-decade redistricting, even
though redistricting normally occurs after the once-a-decade census. They
also found that politics — not illegal racial discrimination — prompted the
redrawing of district lines.
Twice last year, Democratic lawmakers, angered by the proposed redrawing,
left the state to withhold quorums that would allow Republicans to pass the
redistricting plan, which seemed likely to cost Democrats several seats in
the Congressional delegation.
But the decision by the judges, Patrick Higginbotham, Lee Rosenthal and T.
John Ward, pointedly noted that "we decide only the legality" of the plan
"and not its wisdom." Judge Ward, moreover, partly dissented, arguing that
in one district Hispanic voters were illegally disenfranchised and that the
Legislature had to remedy the violations.
Justice Department officials cleared the map on Dec. 19, finding it
consistent with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
By some counts, Texas Democrats, who had held a 17-to-15 edge in the House
until Representative Ralph M. Hall announced last week that he was joining
the Republicans, could find themselves in a 23-to-9 minority.
The court ruled on four issues: whether Texas could redistrict mid-decade;
whether the plan discriminated on the basis of race; whether it was an
unconstitutional gerrymander; and whether it diluted the voting strengths of
minorities. In all cases, the judges decided, it did not violate the
Constitution. But they said, "Whether the Texas Legislature has acted in the
best interest of Texas is a judgment that belongs to the people who elected
the officials whose act is challenged in this case."
The decision sent candidates scrambling to prepare their filings in the
newly redrawn districts by the deadline of Jan. 16.
Republicans from Gov. Rick Perry on down praised the ruling. Democrats
denounced it, vowing to take the battle to the Supreme Court, which is
already hearing a related Pennsylvania gerrymandering case that could have
an effect on Texas.
Both sides were bruised by the vitriolic remapping battle in the Texas House
and Senate. At the end of the legislative session in May, House Democrats,
claiming a plot to lock them in for a vote, fled to Oklahoma.
Later, Senate Democrats thwarted two special sessions by going to
Albuquerque. After one of their number broke ranks to provide a quorum, the
others reluctantly followed for a third special session during which the
Republican majority pushed through the redistricting bill.
Democrats and other critics of the redistricting plan then filed suit.
"The Legislature has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility," Governor
Perry said after the judges' decision. The chairwoman of the Texas
Republican Party, Tina Bensiker, said, "Our claims have been validated." Tom
Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee,
called the ruling "a serious blow to the Democrats" and added, "It makes
their already remote chances of taking back the House slimmer than ever."
Democrats accused Republicans of drawing districts to dilute the voting
power of minorities. Representative Martin Frost of Dallas, a major target
of Republican redistricters, said the court "effectively repealed the Voting
Rights Act and turned back the clock on nearly 40 years of progress for
minority Americans."
Representative Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the House
Democratic Caucus, said the ruling "reinforces the Republican party's
declaration of war against the Hispanic and African-American communities
throughout Texas."
Richard Murray, director of the Center for Public Policy at the University
of Houston, who testified in the case as an expert witness called by the
Democrats, said he found that the remapping drained some votes from
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a black Democrat from Houston. But he
said the judges seemed persuaded that because other minority representatives
gained, the plan was not discriminatory.