Supreme Court orders new look
at Texas' congressional districts

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The Supreme Court handed Democrats a victory today, ordering a lower court to reconsider a Texas redistricting plan that could give Republicans six more seats and a firmer hold on their majority in the House.

The decision won't affect next month's elections, though any GOP gains on Nov. 2 could be wiped out later if the plan ultimately is deemed unconstitutional.

States must redraw boundaries every 10 years to reflect population shifts found during the census. Five appeals over the Texas boundary-drawing pose an interesting question: Can political leaders of a Legislature force district drawing more frequently than once a decade, to make more seats winnable for members of their party?

The case has been exceedingly contentious. Democratic legislators twice staged walkouts from the Texas Legislature to protest district-drawing that benefited Republican candidates.

And House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was admonished recently by the House ethics committee for getting too involved.

Click here for the rest.

I've been following this story for nearly a year and a half, and it's been pretty wild at times. The bottom line from my point of view is that this whole redistricting thing is part of a much larger attempt by Movement Conservatives on the national level to solidify their lock on power by any means necessary--connect down-the-throat redistricting in Texas to the flurry of GOP vote scams coming to light recently and Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's campaign finance scandals, and let's not forget about Bush's stacking the Federal courts with reactionary weirdos; the list goes on and on. Republicans know that their "comman man" rhetoric has a limited life and they are preparing for the day that they can't win elections fairly.

Face it, the Conservative Movement is anti-democratic, and, hence, anti-American.

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