SC Justice Kennedy accuses DeLay of playing politics with race

A huge Supreme Court ruling came down today -- disappointing for the most part.  By a vote of 5 to 4, they upheld a lower court ruling that Tom DeLay's 2003 redistricting plan was legal.  Essentially, it opens the door for both party's to consistently change district lines to give them a leg up heading into each November election.

Congressional Quarterly explains:

The court rebuffed Democratic arguments that the remap adopted in2003 was an unconstitutional mid-decade partisan gerrymander. In sodoing, it left open the possibility that other state legislatures mightchoose to redistrict more than once a decade if party control shifts.

In 2002, under a court-drawn map, Democrats won 17 of Texas’ 32 U.S.House seats. But Republicans captured control of the state legislaturethat year, and at the instigation of former U.S. House Majority LeaderTom DeLay, R-Texas, they pushed through a new redistricting plan in2003.

Underthe new map, Republicans won 21 of the 32 House seats in the 2004election, which enabled the GOP to increase its overall House majority.

However (and this is rather interesting), conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy hinted that Tom DeLay's effort in Texas used the race card to divide the Hispanic vote, preventing them from electing a Hispanic Congressman in San Antonio:

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for a 5-4 majority, saidHispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosingin south and west Texas under the state's plan.

The plan's "troubling blend of politics and race — and the resultingvote dilution of a group that was beginning to achieve (the federallaw's) goal of overcoming prior electoral discrimination — cannot besustained," Kennedy wrote.

The Dallas Morning News predicts that this ruling could scrutinize Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla, who narrowly won because of Tom DeLay's gerrymandering of the San Antonio district.

Other than that, though, this is a major victory for Republican majorities in the southern U.S., who now can legally redraw the district maps as they please.  As the Houston Chronicle said a few days ago before the decision was handed down, this ruling would hold nationwide implications.

Sadly, when you draw district lines based on political advantage and not on simple geography, you are pretty much throwing a punch to the gut of representative democracy.

You can read the official ruling here.

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Other blogs writing about this issue: The Carpetbagger Report, Majikthise, Democratic National Committee, The it List, Down with Tyranny, Jab, Victoria Kos, It's my Right to be Left of Center, Supreme Irony, D-Day, The Daily Jot, Unique like Everybody, BiblioSquirrel, Brains and Eggs, Truth Dig, Moonage Political Webdream, MyDD.