{"id":1200,"date":"2012-01-23T09:56:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T14:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=1200"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:24:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:24:21","slug":"high-court-rejects-texas-judges-redistricting-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2012\/01\/23\/high-court-rejects-texas-judges-redistricting-map\/","title":{"rendered":"High court rejects Texas judge\u2019s redistricting map"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Billy Corriher<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In a case that does not bode well for Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act, last week the Supreme Court\u00a0<a style=\"color: #1f2d61\" title=\"Perry v. Perez, No. 11-713, 565 U.S. ___ (Jan. 20, 2012).\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120625032454\/http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/11pdf\/11-713.pdf\">unanimously<\/a>\u00a0threw out a federal judge\u2019s redistricting map for the state of Texas. The Court\u2019s per curiam opinion, released on Friday, said the judge failed to show enough deference to the Texas legislature\u2019s map, which is still awaiting preclearance from a federal court in D.C. Like other states with a history of racial discrimination in voting, Texas is required by Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act to obtain \u201cpreclearance\u201d for voting changes from the U.S. Department of Justice or the D.C. court. These states must demonstrate that the changes do not result in \u201cdenying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While preclearance was pending, civil rights groups asked a court to rule the legislature\u2019s map unconstitutional, arguing that it discriminated against Latino voters. The plaintiffs asserted that, even though Latinos accounted for 3\/4 of the state\u2019s population growth in the past decade, the legislature\u2019s map would dilute Latinos\u2019 voting power. The Texas judge delayed judgment, pending the results of preclearance. But as the state\u2019s primary election approached, the judge drew up an alternate map. (The Supreme Court has said states covered by Section 5 cannot hold elections with new maps until they are precleared.) The Texas court said it drew an \u201cindependent map\u201d based on \u201cneutral principles.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court said the judge should have used the legislature\u2019s map as a \u201cstarting point.\u201d The Court noted that redistricting is primarily the responsibility of state legislatures: \u201cThe failure of a State\u2019s newly enacted plan to gain preclearance prior to an upcoming election does not, by itself, require a court to take up the state legislature\u2019s task.\u201d The drastic population growth in Texas required sweeping changes to its Congressional map, and the Court said a judge should only reject the legislature\u2019s map if there is a \u201creasonable probability\u201d that the map will not receive preclearance.<\/p>\n<p>In rejecting the judge\u2019s map, the Court noted that, when it comes to redistricting, there are\u00a0<a style=\"color: #1f2d61\" title=\"Holder v. Perez, No. 11-713, 4 (2012) (&quot;[E]xperience has shown the difficulty of defining neutral legal principles in this area, for redistricting ordinarily involves criteria and standards that have been weighed and evaluated by the elected branches in the exercise of their political judgment.&quot;).\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120625032454\/http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/11pdf\/11-713.pdf\">no such things<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cneutral principles.\u201d All of the decisions involved are policy judgments. Attorney General Eric Holder recently\u00a0<a style=\"color: #1f2d61\" title=\"William Douglas, Holder decries states' efforts to restrict ease of voting, Miami Herald, Jan. 16, 2012.\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120625032454\/http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/2012\/01\/16\/2592492_p2\/holder-decries-states-efforts.html\">stated<\/a>\u00a0that our election systems should be \u201cfree from partisan influence,\u201d but I thought that was the entire point of redistricting. On what other basis are state legislatures expected to draw boundaries for Congressional seats? Do we really expect state legislatures to ignore political considerations?<span id=\"more-8535\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In addition to noting federalism concerns in this case, the Court again stated that Section 5 presents \u201cserious constitutional questions.\u201d Justice Thomas, in a concurring opinion, reiterated his belief that Section 5 is unconstitutional. Notwithstanding Thomas\u2019 doubts, new voting laws prove that federal oversight is still justified. Many Republican-led state legislatures have\u00a0<a style=\"color: #1f2d61\" title=\"Scott Keyes, What states are doing to restrict voting rights, Think Progress, Oct. 31, 2011.\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120625032454\/http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/progress-report\/what-states-are-doing-to-restrict-voting-rights\/\">passed<\/a>\u00a0voter ID laws that will disproportionately impact minorities, and Florida went so far as to\u00a0<a style=\"color: #1f2d61\" title=\"Trymaine Lee, Florida early voting limits could negatively affect blacks, Latinos, Huffington Post, Jan. 4, 2012.\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120625032454\/http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2012\/01\/04\/limits-on-early-voting-in_n_1184134.html\">cut back<\/a>\u00a0on early voting. If the Obama administration continues its robust enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, it may find itself facing a skeptical Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Billy Corriher In a case that does not bode well for Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act, last week [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-jm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}