Judicial gerrymandering‏ in Texas

A very interesting post from http://www.empowertexans.com/   about the new congressional districts in Texas being redrawn so that the new seats favor the Democratic party in a Republican state. This follows this post about forced unionism. This follows this previous article about encouraging American energy independence. This is a key issue to prevent money from going to hostile countries such as Iran  and Venezuela. For more that you can do to get involved click HERE and you can read a very interesting book HERE!

Judicial gerrymandering‏



We just thought the battle over Texas’ legislative lines was finished!


Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked the US Supreme Court for an emergency stay on the arbitrary maps handed down by a three-judge federal panel in San Antonio right before Thanksgiving.
 BLOGGER'S NOTE: CONTACT GREG ABBOTT HERE: greg.abbott@oag.state.tx.us





EmpowerTexans.com “Around Texas” writer Michele Samuelson noted last night that it will be US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reviewing Mr. Abbott’s request.



As you know, the responsibility for the drawing of representational maps rests with the legislatures of the several states, not federal judges. The federal courts, when only absolutely necessary, should make only the bare minimum of changes to rectify clear violations of law.



Instead, the court re-drew the maps for the Texas House, Texas Senate and US House. One judge dissented from his colleagues' version of the Texas House map, describing as going beyond what is “legal, practical, or fair.”



That's putting it mildly. The maps they ordered are a lesson in judicially-mandated gerrymandering; the radical changes they are imposing on the state’s political landscape is nothing short of shocking.



(Practically, the judicial activism exhibited by these federal district judges has plunged all of us into a new world of election law. Remember, filing for office has already been delayed. When ordering the new maps right before Thanksgiving, they set tomorrow -- Monday, the 28th -- as the new opening for filing. If a stay is granted by the Supreme Court, filing would necessarily be delayed further as yet new maps are prepared.)




State Rep. Larry Taylor, who serves as chairman of the Texas House Republican Caucus, this past week sent a strongly worded letter to the A.G. saying he and other lawmakers are “fully supportive” of fighting the “dramatic overreach” of the federal judges. Taylor described the wholesale re-write as thwarting “the will of Texas voters” and representing a “significant blow” to our “democratic form of government.”



In Michele Samuelson’s words, we today must count on the Supreme Court to force back this “egregious case of judicial activism.”



It's the responsibility of the courts, Attorney General Abbott noted in his request for a stay, "to apply the law, not to make policy."



What liberals have been unsuccessful in achieving at the ballot box in Texas, they have managed to find a federal court willing to force upon us. Using these court-imposed lines without a fight would be a farce and a disgrace, essentially disenfranchising every Texan while altering the state’s policy outcomes for a decade or longer.



Mr. Abbott’s decision to vigorously fight the imposition of the federal judges’ maps is the correct one.



For Texas,

Michael Quinn Sullivan

& the http://www.empowertexans.com/ team!