Texas asks Supreme Court to intervene in redistricting battle

[Draggingtree]

Scotus

Texas asks Supreme Court to intervene in redistricting battle

By Amy Howe on Aug 25, 2017 at 6:34 pm

In June, the Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by a three-judge federal district court striking down the redistricting plan that Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature adopted after the 2010 census. Today the state of Texas asked the Supreme Court to step into another redistricting dispute, this time a long-running battle over that state’s congressional redistricting plan: In an emergency filing, Texas officials urged the justices to put a federal district court’s order invalidating two districts in the current plan on hold while they appeal to the Supreme Court.Continue reading »       

[Draggingtree]

U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocks ruling against Texas congressional map

• by Alexa Ura and Jim Malewitz
• Aug. 28, 2017

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put on hold a lower court ruling that invalidated two of Texas' 36 congressional districts.          

  FULL STORY

[Draggingtree]

Alito puts Texas redistricting case on hold

By Amy Howe on Aug 28, 2017 at 5:05 pm

In a one-sentence order issued this afternoon, Justice Samuel Alito blocked an order by a federal district court in Texas that had invalidated two congressional districts in that state. Officials in Texas had asked the district court to put its order on hold to give it time to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the lower court had declined to do so. Last week state officials went to the Supreme Court, where they found a more sympathetic audience in Alito, who handles emergency appeals from the geographic area that includes Texas.

The district court’s decision, issued earlier this month, invalidated two districts in the congressional redistricting map, which the Texas legislature had enacted in 2013. The district court reasoned that although the 2013 plan was based on a 2012 plan that the court itself had adopted in the wake of a challenge to the legislature’s 2011 plan, the two districts at issue had remained the same as under the 2011 plan. One of those districts intentionally diluted the votes of Hispanic residents, the court concluded, while the other relied too heavily on race. The district court ordered the state to either call a special legislative session or return to court on September 5 with experts and a proposal for new maps.

Today’s order – which came from Alito himself, rather than the full nine-member court – relieves the state of its obligation to comply with the deadlines imposed by the district court. Instead, Alito instructed the challengers to respond to the state’s request by the afternoon of September 5; the order indicates that the district court’s order will remain on hold until the response is received and either the Supreme Court or he takes further action on the state’s request.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.

[Draggingtree]

Amy Howe Independent Contractor and Reporter

Posted Tue, September 5th, 2017 5:40 pm

Challengers urge justices to sit out Texas redistricting battle for now

The Supreme Court should (and indeed must) stay out of the battle over Texas redistricting right now. That was the message in a 38-page filing submitted to the court today by the individuals and groups that had challenged the federal congressional redistricting maps adopted by the Texas legislature in 2013. Last month a three-judge federal district court struck down two districts in that plan, ruling that one had intentionally diluted the votes of Hispanic residents while the other focused too heavily on race. Texas officials went to the Supreme Court on August 25, asking Justice Samuel Alito (who handles emergency appeals from the geographic area that includes Texas) to block the lower court’s decision, which had instructed the state to either call a special session of the legislature to draw new maps or return to court today with experts and new maps to propose. Alito put the district court’s order on hold temporarily and directed the challengers to respond today.

The challengers told the justices that the Supreme Court lacks the power to review the state’s request because there is nothing to put on hold:  http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/09/challengers-urge-justices-sit-texas-redistricting-battle-now/

[Draggingtree]

Justices stay lower-court rulings striking down Texas redistricting maps, ordering new ones

By Amy Howe on Sep 12, 2017 at 9:54 pm

Just a few hours after it put an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on hold in the litigation over President Donald Trump’s “travel ban,” the Supreme Court blocked two more lower-court orders, which had invalidated two of Texas’ federal congressional districts and the state’s maps for the lower house of the Texas legislature. The lower courts’ original orders, issued last month, had given the Texas governor three days to decide whether to call a special session of the legislature, and it directed the state to be ready to redraw the maps by early September. Tonight’s rulings by the Supreme Court put those orders on hold to give the state time to file its appeals; they will remain on hold until the justices rule on those appeals.

Texas’ request had gone first to Justice Samuel Alito, who – acting alone – temporarily blocked the lower-court rulings while the challengers responded to the state’s requests. Those responses were due last week. But once the briefing on the stay requests was finished, Alito referred the disputes to the full court, which acted tonight. Unlike tonight’s order in the travel ban case, four justices noted their disagreement with the court’s orders in the federal congressional and Texas House cases: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan indicated that they would have denied the state’s applications.     http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/09/justices-stay-lower-court-rulings-striking-texas-redistricting-maps-ordering-new-ones/