LULAC Files Redistricting Lawsuit

It might just as well be 2003 all over again. That is the year that LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) filed suit challenging the legality of the 2^nd in a decade reapportionment and redistricting engineered by Tom DeLay to maximize the number of congressional seats in the Texas delegation to be occupied by Republicans.

The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court who came down on the side of LULAC, and Texas 23 district boundaries had to be redrawn to more accurately reflect the demographics. LULAC cited the 1975 Voting Rights Act which forbids just that kind of racial discrimination.

Well guess what, the Solomons map, the one that apportions Texas 4 new congressional districts in a wildly anti-Hispanic way is being challenged by LULAC along the same lines as CD 23’s boundaries were drawn.

This year it is even more heinous what the Republicans have done. Texas’ population growth can be directly correlated to the growth in its Hispanic population, which is why Texas got 4 more House seats. Yet the way the map is drawn, 3 of the 4 seats split the Hispanic communities and will most likely elect Republicans. Only one district will be a Democratic one, and very, very, heavily Hispanic.

So naturally, LULAC filed suit. And when LULAC files a lawsuit, odds are very good that they will win. They are very good at this.

But you know, this time I think it won’t come down to another Supreme Court decision. This time I think the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice is going to be taking a look at this map and use the authority given to it by the VRA to reject it outright.

It certainly would be a great way for the Obama Administration to issue another public smack down on Rick Perry.