TEXAS REDISTRICTING & ELECTION LAW

After several months in hiatus, Texas redistricting returns to the fore on Monday of next week when parties in the San Antonio case are due to submit proposals on the process the court should use in fixing the legislatively adopted maps rejected by the D.C. panel under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

The proposals also will address the process for having the court take up and decide claims under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as well as constitutional and other claims not before the D.C. court.

Most observers are expecting the parties to have fairly divergent views on the subject.

In addition to the parties’ map process proposals, the San Antonio court has also asked the parties to express their views about whether action on remedial maps should be stayed until the Supreme Court decides claims in Shelby County v. Holder that section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional.

On Friday, action on Texas redistricting also will take place in Washington when the Justice Department and intervenors in the section 5 case file briefs at the Supreme Court addressing whether the high court should hear an appeal of the D.C. court’s Texas redistricting decision.