Good News! Supreme Court Rules Against TX GOP:
Posted on Mon, Aug. 11, 2003
Supreme Court rules against Republicans
Democrats file lawsuit in Laredo
By John Moritz
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court today dealt a body
blow to the GOP-led drive to redraw the state's congressional boundaries
by rejecting a plea from Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
that the justices order the 11 Democratic senators to end their holdout in
New Mexico.
The state's highest civil court denied the motion filed Thursday by the
state's top two Republicans that would have compelled the absent
Democrats to return to Austin so the Legislature could take up
redistricting.
The 11 Democrats fled two weeks ago, and their action tied in knots the
Texas Senate, because the state Constitution requires that two-thirds, or
21 of the 31-member body be present for any business to be conducted.
An attorney for the Democrats hailed the court's ruling as a victory for
the quorum-busting senators who have vowed to remain holed up in
Albuquerque, N.M., until the 30-special session Perry called on July 28
expires in a little over two weeks.
"I think it means that the Supreme Court clearly saw the baselessness of
the governor and lieutenant governor's gambit and did what courts are
supposed to do: apply and enforce the law fairly and expeditiously," said
Austin lawyer Renea Hicks, who represents Texas' Democratic
congressmen.
Spokesmen for Perry and Dewhurst did not immediately return calls when
the court's ruling was announced at 2:30 p.m. A spokeswoman for Texas
Attorney General Greg Abbott, a first-term Republican who represented
the governor and the lieutenant governor before the high court, said it is
up to Dewhurst to decide the next move because he is the president of
the Senate.
"The lieutenant governor is the person who holds the cards now," said
Angela Hale, spokeswoman for Abbott. "It's in his hands on who he wants
to proceed."
During the regular session of the Legislature, which ended June 2, House
Democrats were able to kill redistricting when 51 of them fled to
Ardmore, Okla., which denied a quorum in the lower chamber. During the
first 30-day special session, Senate Democrats blocked the effort because
of the chamber's tradition of requiring 21 of its members to agree before
bringing any matter up for a floor debate.
Dewhurst announced that the 21-vote tradition would be abandoned in
subsequent special sessions on redistricting, which prompted the decision
by 11 of the 12 Senate Democrats to bolt.
The court's decision, which was not accompanied by an explanation, came
the same day as Democrats filed a federal lawsuit in Laredo alleging that
the effort to redraw the 32 congressional boundaries violates the 1965
Voting Rights Act because the absence of the 21-vote tradition in the
Senate silences minority voices.
Republicans control both state houses and hold all of the statewide
offices, but Democrats enjoy a 17-15 advantage in the state's
congressional delegation.
dfw.com |
