TEXAS REDISTRICTING & ELECTION LAW
Have questions, comments, suggestions, additional content, or a redistricting joke (or two)? Feel free to contact me:
Michael Li,
michael.li@nyu.edu, 646-292-8360.
The more the merrier.
LULAC also filed papers over the weekend to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the State of Texas to get pre-clearance of its redistricting maps under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
If granted, LULAC would join a growing list of intervenors that includes the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force (whose members include Texas LULAC), the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, State Senator Wendy Davis, State Representative Marc Veasey, and a group of individual intervenors represented by Renea Hicks and Marc Elias (who also represent the Travis County plaintiffs in the San Antonio case).**
The State of Texas will be filing a motion for summary judgment in the case by Wednesday and the Justice Department is expected to set forth its objections to the maps next Monday, September 19, when it answers the state’s complaint. Texas Assistant Attorney General told the San Antonio panel that the Justice Department had agreed, in light of tight election deadlines, to file a “substantive” answer rather than the pro forma answer normally filed in federal court.
Here’s the motion:
** There probably is a better shorthand name for this group.
[Updated to clarify that the papers the DOJ will file is its answer to the state’s complaint and to clarify the source of the statement that the answer would be substantive were remarks by the state’s lawyer in open court in San Antonio.]
