The Port Lavaca Wave (Port Lavaca, Tex.), Vol. 126, No. 31, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 2, 2018 Page: 4 of 16
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A4 ►►
THE PORT LAVACA WAVE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2018
OPINION
US Supreme Court hears Texas redistricting cases
1
DAVE McNEELY
AZAlA PAVCTOI’4 JStfrODI Ottfc.
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BARBARA BUSH
H25-20I8
Texans, your collective
ears should be burning.
Deciding who can vote, and
in which legislative and
congressional districts, were
the subjects last week of court
reviews by the federal court
system.
And, the final judgments
are still further on up the road.
On Tuesday (April 24), the
U.S. Supreme Court heard an
appeal of lower court decisions
declaring challenges to the
state’s congressional districts,
and state House districts,
on grounds that political
gerrymandering discriminated
against people of color.
And on Friday (April
27), a panel of three judges
on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals, voted 2-1 to
overturn a lower court verdict
that the Texas Voter ID law
was designed to discourage
minorities from voting. More
on that in a moment.
On the politically
gerrymandered districts, some
reporters who typically cover
the Supreme Court said the
court’s usual division between
liberal and conservative
justices seemed in play.
The court’s four liberal-
leaning justices seemed to
favor the argument that the
districts discriminated against
minorities, and the four
conservatives leaned the other
way. Justice Anthony Kennedy,
often the swing vote, was
noncommittal.
The high court has never
used partisan gerrymandering
as a reason for striking down a
district.
One oddity in the
redistricting case is that
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ED STERLING
State Capital Highlights
MEMBER 2018
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
for allowing some even-
handedness by the court
is that there’s a Wisconsin
case by Democrats alleging
Republican gerrymandering
of districts, and a Maryland
case by Republicans alleging
Democratic gerrymandering.
And, there’s a case in
Pennsylvania, where the state’s
supreme court has drawn a
new congressional districting
map because of alleged
Republican gerrymandering,
in violation of the
Pennsylvania constitution.
The Pennsylvania court says
it has that jurisdiction under
Pennsylvania law.
As for the Voter ID law,
and the three-judge 5th Circuit
Court of Appeals panel
overturning the lower court
decision that ruled the law
discriminatory, that case isn’t
over, either.
State Rep. Rafael Anchia,
D-Dallas, the chairman of the
Mexican American Legislative
Caucus and one of the
plaintiffs in the suit, said their
fight will continue.
“We are undeterred by
today’s decision,” Anchia
said after the court’s ruling,
“and we will continue to
fight against laws that aim to
suppress the vote.”
The case probably will
be appealed to the whole 5th
Circuit, or to the Supreme
Court.
Trump Texas 5th Circuit
Judicial Appointee.... Just to
keep things on the judicial/
political/legal front stirred
up, President Donald Trump’s
appointment of a top legal
aide to Gov. Greg Abbott, Andy
Oldham, to the 5th Circuit
Abbott urges local officials
to apply for Harvey funds
— Buyouts and elevations
of flood-prone properties;
— Drainage and reservoir
projects that eliminate future
flooding;
— Projects to lessen
the frequency or severity of
flooding;
— Flood risk reduction
projects such as dams,
retention basins, levees and
flood walls; and
— Large-scale channeling
of waterways.
Chiefs support proposal
The Texas Railroad
Commission on April 26 joined
the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality and the
Public Utility Commission of
Texas in submitting comments
on a U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency proposal to
repeal the Clean Power Plan
adopted under the Obama
administration in 2015.
A letter signed by the
executive directors of the
three state agencies supports
the EPA’s proposed repeal of
“Carbon Pollution Emission
Guidelines for Existing
Electric Utility Generating
Units,” known as the Clean
Power Plan.
On April 27, Gov. Abbott,
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and
Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton sent a joint letter to
the EPA, praising its plan to
repeal the plan. They said it
“failed to produce evidence of
greenhouse gases dangerous
enough to necessitate federal
regulation.”
Abbott says pay for it
Gov. Abbott on April 25
sent a letter to former U.S. Rep.
Blake Farenthold of Corpus
Christi, demanding that he
cover costs for an upcoming
emergency special election for
the 27th Congressional District
of Texas.
the districts, drawn by the
Texas Legislature in 2011
after the decennial census in
2010, were overruled later by
a three-judge federal court
panel in San Antonio, as
discriminatory, and the court
drew its own map.
But the Supreme Court
told the lower-court judges
to try again, and take more
into account the legislature’s
map. So the second map was
drawn hurriedly for the 2012
elections.
Then in 2013, the
legislature basically adopted
the court-drawn map as its
own, with minor changes. But
that map was also challenged,
and after three elections using
it, the three-judge San Antonio
court ruled that some districts
were still discriminatory.
“Although this court had
‘approved’ the map for use
as interim maps, given the
severe time constraints it was
operating under at the time of
their adoption,” the court said
its initial approval was “not
based on a full examination
of the record or the governing
law,” and so was “subject to
revision.”
The San Antonio court
said that the legislature’s
adoption of the map had been
part of a litigation strategy
aimed at insulating the 2013
map from further challenge,
because it was initially drawn
by the court.
If this whole thing sounds
a bit weird, it’s because it is.
There’s considerable question
where the Supreme Court will
come out on this - assuming it
does.
But one potential factor
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Abbott ordered the
election to fill the seat made
vacant by Farenthold’s recent
resignation.
“While you have publicly
offered to reimburse the
$84,000 in taxpayer funds you
wrongly used to settle a sexual
harassment claim, there is no
legal recourse requiring you
to give that money back to
Congress,” Abbott wrote. “I am
urging you to give those funds
back to the counties in your
district to cover the costs of the
June 30, 2018, special election.
This seat must be filled, and
the counties and taxpayers in
the 27th Congressional District
should not again pay the price
for your actions,” Abbott
added.
Farenthold, whose tenure
in U.S. House began in January
2011, resigned from office
effective April 6.
Paxton welcomes ruling
Attorney General Paxton
on April 27 applauded a 2-1
ruling by a three-judge panel
of the New Orleans-based U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 5th
Circuit that upholds Senate
Bill 5, Texas’ voter ID law.
“The court rightly
recognized that when the
Legislature passed Senate Bill
5 last session, it complied with
every change the 5th Circuit
ordered to the original voter
ID law,” Attorney General
Paxton said. “Safeguarding
the integrity of our elections
is essential to preserving our
democracy. The revised voter
ID law removes any burden
on voters who cannot obtain a
photo ID.”
SB 5 allows registered
voters without one of the
seven state-approved forms
of photo identification to
cast an in-person ballot by
signing a sworn declaration of
reasonable impediment stating
why they could not obtain
photo ID.
May is awareness month
The Texas Department
of Transportation’s “Share
the Road: Look Twice for
Motorcycles” campaign is
urging drivers to watch for
motorcycles, as crashes killed
501 and seriously injured
another 2,101 motorcyclists in
Texas last year.
TxDOT’s campaign is part
of National Motorcycle Safety
Awareness Month in May.
“Nobody wants to take
a life in a crash or lose a
loved one,” said TxDOT
Executive Director James
Bass. “Motorcycles are small,
they’re hard to see, and it can
be difficult to judge their speed
and distance. That’s why it’s
critical that drivers take extra
precautions to look twice for
motorcycles, especially at
intersections.
AUSTIN — Mayors,
county judges and emergency
management officials in
communities impacted by
Hurricane Harvey received
letters last week from Gov.
Greg Abbott, urging them to
take advantage of available
funding.
Some $500 million in funds
from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency’s Hazard
Mitigation Grant Program are
available now, Abbott said.
These funds are in addition
to the more than $10 billion
in Community Development
Block Grant funds approved by
Congress and awarded to Texas
earlier this year.
“The hazard mitigation
funds available today can
provide immediate relief and
resiliency to your community,”
Abbott wrote. “As of today,
the Texas Department of
Emergency Management has
received only seven complete
applications from the entire
region impacted by Hurricane
Harvey. That means hundreds
of millions of dollars that are
available to Texas communities
today are not being put to use.”
Abbott reminded the
officials that local governments
would not be obligated to pay
the typical 25 percent local cost
share for hazard mitigation
grants and that $600 million of
additional hazard mitigation
funds will become available in
four months.
Hazard mitigation funds
can be used for purposes such
as:
Court of appeals drew fire
from Democrats in the United
States Senate.
At a confirmation hearing
Wednesday, April 25, Oldham,
who served as Abbott’s general
counsel, and before that,
under Abbott when he was
attorney general, said views
he expressed in his previous
positions wouldn’t affect how
he would rule as a judge.
Illinois Democratic Sen.
Dick Durbin asked about
Oldham’s statement in a
2016 radio interview that the
Supreme Court was dangerous,
abusing some rights while not
protecting others. Oldham said
he was representing Abbott’s
views.
“Do you agree with that?”
Durbin asked.
“Absolutely not,” Oldham
said. “I would not sit before
you as a nominee to an inferior
court that would be subject
to the rulings and precedents
of the Supreme Court of the
United States if I did not
believe that I could be bound
by them.”
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French, Tania. The Port Lavaca Wave (Port Lavaca, Tex.), Vol. 126, No. 31, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 2, 2018, newspaper, May 2, 2018; Port Lavaca, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1301716/m1/4/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Calhoun County Public Library.