Senate passes House redistrict maps

[TexasTowelie]

The Texas Senate approved political boundary maps for the House on Sunday, completing the initial task of the special legislative session that ends Tuesday.

The House-passed version of Senate Bill 3 makes at least six changes in the House boundary maps earlier approved by the Senate, ones that were drawn as interim maps by a San Antonio court. Republican leaders at the State Capitol now want to adopt those maps in hopes of avoiding a delay in primary election dates for the 2014 elections.

The vote was along party lines, 18-11, with Democrats voting no.

Sen. Kel Seliger, an Amarillo Republican who heads the Senate redistricting committee, said the changes were minor and agreed to in the House. The Senate generally goes along with changes the House wants in its political boundary maps, and vice versa.

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/senate-passes-house-redistrict-maps/nYSZM/ .

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[Gothmog]

2. Record was made

The Democrats never had the votes to stop the redistricting maps once Dewhurst banned filibusters for these bills. The elimination of the filibuster was a very questionable move and will be used as evidence of discriminatory intent on appeal.

The main effort of the Democrats was to build a record for the San Antonio court to look at with respect to intentional discrimination. The Democrats did their a good job in this effort from what I could tell. There is now additional evidence in the legislative record showing discriminatory intent. Now the focus switches back to the courts.

Even if the SCOTUS strikes down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Democrats still have a good chance of winning a Section 2 case due to the evidence of intentional discrimination.