If Gov. Greg Abbott calls a second special legislative session this summer, it won’t be for redistricting.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton revealed Friday that Abbott won’t ask lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional map — found by a federal court this week to discriminate against Latino and black voters — in a fresh round of legislative overtime.
Instead, Paxton is appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court and trying to keep the boundaries intact for the 2018 elections, according to his filings to a panel of three judges in San Antonio.
[…]
In his filings Friday, Paxton revealed a state plan to wriggle free of any consequences ahead of the 2018 elections. While asking the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling that Texas intentionally discriminated against minority voters — the fourth such federal ruling this year — Paxton also requested an injunction that would protect Texas from needing a new map.
Barring a Supreme Court order, the San Antonio judges would approve new boundaries.
“Judges should get out of the business of drawing maps,” Paxton said in a statement. “We firmly believe that the maps Texas used in the last three election cycles are lawful, and we will aggressively defend the maps on all fronts.”
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See here for the background. The state is playing for all the marbles here – if they don’t get a stay, and Rick Hasen thinks SCOTUS may not care to get involved at this time, then it will indeed being judges drawing the maps. The upside for the state is they get to keep the current maps, and then maybe get the discriminatory intent ruling(s) overturned down the line. The downside is judge-drawn maps, possibly delayed primaries for this year, and a return engagement with preclearance, which could extend into the next Presidential administration. No big deal, right? I’m sure the plaintiffs will contest the motion for a stay, so now we wait and see what SCOTUS chooses to do. In the meantime, assuming SCOTUS hasn’t put up a stop sign before then, everyone heads back to court on September 5 to fight over what new maps should look like. Michael Li and the DMN have more.
(On a side note, Li quotes from the state’s motion in which they say one reason why they will not call a special session to consider drawing new maps is because there wouldn’t be time to “hold protracted hearings involving interest groups”. Which is pretty frigging funny considering that they didn’t bother holding any hearings when they drew the current maps. Do you think Ken Paxton ever had shame, or do you think he had it surgically removed at some point?)
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