Federal court rejects GOP-drawn Texas voting maps = Too Late for 2012

[Coyotl]

STOP the Republican War on Minorities NOW!

Federal court rejects GOP-drawn Texas voting maps
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120829/us-texas-redistricting/
PAUL J. WEBER | August 29, 2012 | AP

SAN ANTONIO — Stadiums and hospitals removed from the districts of black congressional members and country clubs newly drawn into those of white incumbents. A lawyer emailing "No bueno" to a Republican staffer about plans that risked leaving a paper trail and jeopardizing the legality of a voting map.

Those were among the evidence a Washington federal court used to determine that Texas Republican lawmakers discriminated against minorities while drawing new political boundaries, throwing out the maps as violations of the Voting Rights Act but likely not in time to affect the November elections.

The decision Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is instead likely to reverberate in 2014, .............

[Coyotl]

1. MORE DETAILS HERE:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=157&sid=21908103

...........voters in Texas this November will use interim political maps drawn last year by a different three-judge panel in San Antonio. That court is handling the lawsuit filed by minority groups, while the Washington panel took up the separate issue of whether the maps complied with the Voting Rights Act.

Known as seeking "preclearance," Texas and eight other, predominantly Southern states with a history of racial bias must submit their political maps to the U.S. Justice Department for compliance review. State prosecutors, however, sought preclearance through the federal court in Washington rather than through the Justice Department.

Opponents said the state's strategy of skirting the Justice Department backfired.

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The long-awaited ruling was hailed as a sweeping victory by minority rights groups that sued the state ....................