Texas will likely argue that the three-judge federal panel failed to give the appropriate legal deference to the plan adopted by the Texas legislature. With the dramatic changes found in the panel’s interim map, they will argue that there will be irreparable damage to the large number of incumbents that the court improperly combined into districts or drew out of existence based on their misunderstanding of the law to permit the drawing of opportunity, cross-over, or coalition minority districts. Those influence districts (by another name) will certainly draw the negative scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Because the plaintiff’s may argue that the interim maps would serve as the baseline for any subsequent retrogression analysis, these dramatic interim lines would cause irreparable impact on the final lines. The full article can be found here:
Texas House Speaker Straus’ statement:
“As the panel of three federal judges prepares to issue its ruling on district lines for the Texas House of Representatives, I hope that the judges will take into account the will of the people of Texas as expressed by their elected representatives.
“I, along with many Members of the House, have strong concerns that the initial map released by the court last week goes much further than is necessary to correct any perceived legal defects in the recently-adopted redistricting plan.
“Members of the Texas House approved a redistricting plan that is fair and that the State’s lawyers have advised us is legal. Even if the panel of judges concludes that the new lines violate federal law in some respects, their role should be limited to making as few revisions as possible to cure those perceived defects, instead of making wholesale changes to the duly elected map.
“If the final order of the court is not substantially closer to the plan we passed, I will urge the Attorney General to seek an immediate stay from the U.S. Supreme Court so that several issues under the Voting Rights Act can be clarified before the federal judges impose their new map on Texas voters for the 2012 elections.”