And has anyone noticed: the Texas redistricting was argued before SCotUS today?
Here, among other places.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments for three consolidated lawsuits over the plan last December. Interest in the outcome of the decision is intense among the nation's lawmakers as well as those following the trials and tribulations of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, the former majority leader who was the architect of the Texas plan. DeLay faces criminal charges for allegedly violating the state's campaign finance laws.
Texas is one of nine states obligated by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to present all redistricting and voting-law changes to the Department of Justice for approval. The states covered by Section 5, which include Alaska and Mississippi, have a history of voting discrimination or under-participation from voters.
Here's one of those other places:
At issue is a Texas congressional redistricting plan engineered by former Senate Majority Leader Tom DeLay, which helped Republicans gain six congressional seats in the 2004 election. Democrats and minority voting groups have challenged the map, saying it is unconstitutional and was unfairly drawn in a rare mid-decade reapportionment soon after Republicans gained control of both houses of the state legislature.
And here is NPR's report on the case.
As a new Texan who was paying attention before he moved here, I say "make that, 'Tom DeLay has killed Tom DeLay's political career'."