DOJ: ‘Ample circumstantial evidence’ of Texas’ intent to limit Latino voting power
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 12:20 pm
The U.S. Department of Justice stepped up its criticism of Texas’ redistricting plans in court filings late Tuesday night, writing there’s “ample circumstantial evidence of a discriminatory purpose with regard to both the State House and Congressional plans,” TPMMuckraker reported this morning.
The DOJ stepped in to challenge those two maps last month, as a federal court in Washington considers whether they would reduce minority voting power in the state. In response to Texas’ motion for summary judgment, the DOJ offered its strongest criticism of the plans yet, saying they’d hundreds of thousands of Latino voters into districts where the candidate of their choice could get elected:
“The proposed Congressional redistricting plan has a retrogressive effect because, compared to the benchmark plan, it decreases the percentage of districts in the Congressional plan in which minority voters have the ability to elect and because under the proposed plan 479,704 fewer Hispanics will reside in districts in which they have an ability to elect a candidate of choice,” lawyers with DOJ’s Civil Rights Division write. “Both plans were also adopted with a discriminatory purpose, and there are a substantial number of material facts in dispute with regard to both prongs of the Section 5 standard.”
Race and ethnicity, the lawyers wrote “were common themes during discussions between the Republican leadership and others, including a United States Congressman and staff. State leaders viewed race as a proxy for party, leading to redistricting decisions and movements of population based solely on the basis of race.”
In August, unsealed emails between Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) and Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) revealed congressional Republicans’ involvement in the redistricting process. The Houston Chronicle and Politico reported those emails also revealed a dustup between Smith and U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who disagreed on how boldly they should redraw the district lines.
After one of Barton’s staffers wrote in an email that Smith’s plan amounted to “high-risk poker with no discernible positive return,” Smith wrote another message warning him to quit sending messages that “may be used against us in court.”
In its Tuesday night filing, the DOJ said those emails “provide riveting circumstantial evidence” that the Republicans crafting the plan worked to shut out minorities from redistricting talks, and drew districts based on race, not party affiliation.
In his Texas Redistricting blog, Dallas attorney Michael Li added that “the DOJ also disagreed strongly with the state on discriminatory intent arguing that there is ‘direct and circumstantial evidence’ that ‘that ‘both plans were enacted with discriminatory purpose.’”
Texas has until Monday to reply to the DOJ and other groups’ opposition, Li writes, and the court will hear the state’s arguments for a ruling in its favor on Nov. 2.
DOJ brief on Texas’ motion for summary judgment
The same pattern was repeated with the Dallas City Council redistricting map chosen by 9 of the 15 City Council members.
A city with a white population that is less than 29% of the total population has now approved and sent to DOJ a map wherein 43% of the city council districts are white majority districts, and these “election results” are before there is any election! This map has 5 districts that are over 50% white and one “coalition” district with a solid white majority of 42%. This is all BEFORE any voting happens.
If redistricting is done correctly the distribution of the population should match the distribution of the districts. The distribution of majority districts should reflect the population. Who can or cannot vote should only make a difference in the voting booth.
That needs to be repeated. “Who can or cannot vote should only make a difference in the voting booth.”
Redistricting should create a level playing field where everyone is counted the same. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of this level playing field to manipulate the power of the voting booth before there is any voting. It is said that 85% of US legislative districts are now gerrymandered to the extent that the outcomes are known before the election. This designing of “Democratic” and “Republican” districts handicaps our nation! Thus we have the inaction we now have in Washington!
The power should only be in the voting booth, NOT at the redistricting table. Our soldiers are not dying to defend the right of the redistricting table to run our nation.
The power of the redistricting table should ONLY be to create the level playing field so all potential, not actual but potential, voters have an equally powerful vote should they gain that right to vote. When the redistricting table manipulates the potential power of the vote, as it obviously has here in Dallas, and all across our nation, something is very wrong.
Details on filing comments to DOJ about the map are at http://dallasredistricting2011.blogspot.com/2011/10/dallas-redistricting-map-sent-to.html
Quoting Michale Lion the subject of racial discrimination is like asking a Fox his opinion on securing the Hen house. He argues in favor of discrimination so long as the racism is directed against white people, He supports racial quotas in universities so long as those work to exclude white students. The actually thinks he’s fighting racism by engaging in racism.
Quoting Michael Li on the subject of racism is like asking a Fox his opinion on securing the Hen house. You really Should find another source of information. Michael Li is well known in The Dallas area as a racist. He consistently argues in favor of and supports discrimination against white people, He supports racial quotas in universities so long as those work to exclude white students.
