It's Officially, Unofficial...

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Category: Blog

Published on Thursday, 15 December 2011 01:34

It’s officially unofficial.

The Supreme Court, in a surprise move Friday, stayed the redistricting map that was drawn by a federal court in San Antonio.

After every census (which was done last year) the Texas legislature must redraw all of the districts to make sure there is equal representative for every citizen in the state of Texas. During the 82nd legislative session earlier this year, we did exactly what the constitution requires us to do. We drew a new map outlining districts that we must all run in for re-election.

Due to the voting rights act of 1965, before a redistricting map can go into affect, it must be “pre-cleared” by the Justice Department or a federal court in Washington. Surprise, Surprise neither the Obama administration’s Justice Department nor the federal court in Washington would pre-clear the Texas House or Congressional maps.

In addition, prior to the map being approved by the Governor, there were around 14 lawsuits filed against it. The lawsuits claimed that the map is unconstitutional because it did not allow for enough minority districts. These lawsuits were heard in another federal court in San Antonio, which decided to take matters into their own hands.

Since the maps the legislature drew would not pass pre-clearance, the San Antonio court decided they would draw our maps for us, and force us to run under maps that were never voted on or approved by the legislature. This is a case of judicial activism at its worse.

Luckily we have an outstanding Texas Attorney General in Greg Abbott, who filed a suit against the court-drawn map with the Supreme Court of the United States, saying the federal courts have no business drawing maps for Texas. We are Texans and we can draw our own maps – thank you very much. It was a long shot, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed and said the map the San Antonio federal court drew could not be used.

So now what? I was asked that very same question this weekend by a New York Times reporter and I told him, “until the Supreme Court gives us some direction, this is unchartered waters. Everything that's happening now is new. There's no place to go for guidance.”

The good news is that we should hear something this week, but until then it is anyone’s guess. It looks like the primary race for the State House and U.S. Congress will be pushed back until later in the year (possibly May), in order to allow for

ballots to be printed and sent to our military men and women serving overseas.

So what happens to Texas delegates? Will we have two primaries…one in March for the Presidential nominee, statewide officials, etc… and one in May for those of us affected by redistricting? Your guess is as good as mine.

I’m not real concerned though, because no matter what the lines look like I already filed for re-election to the Texas House. There is much work to be done, and we must have courageous people that will fight to Take Our Country Back – you with me?