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Democratic lawyers file lawsuit

By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com

Austin, TX – A lawsuit has been filed in Federal District Court in Tyler by Democratic lawyers seeking to prohibit the implementation of the congressional redistricting plan recently approved by the Texas Legislature.

The suit alleges that there is already in place an injunction requiring the use of the current congressional districts plan drawn by a three-judge panel in 2001.

The suit also asks that the court require the defendants, the State of Texas, to "show some public benefit" from the plan adopted by the legislature that "outweighs the disruption caused by using a radically new district plan" and particularly if court challenges to the plan might cause yet another map to be used before 2006.

The suit further notes that the plan is disruptive because it forces the moving of 8.1 million Texans into new congressional district, pushes back the Primary Election date in Texas so that Texas will have little say in the presidential primary and that there are allegations that the map violates federal law.

The suit seeks the current map be used for the 2004 election cycle instead of the one approved by the legislature.

The suit outlines the circumstances under which the map was finally passed by the legislature, including the flight of House Democrats and Senate Democrats to block consideration of the bill, the Texas Attorney General ruling that the legislature was neither mandated nor complelled to draw a new map, and the fact that at statewide hearings some 5,000 individuals offered testimony saying they were against redistricting.

"The new map was designed to produce one likely outcome: the defeat of at least seven incumbent Democratic Members of Congress," according to the suit.

The lawsuit argues that enactment of a new congressional redistricting plan does not end an injunction by the Tyler court in 2001, ordering the defendants to conduct future eletions under the current plan.

The suit alleges that the current map is a fair and constitutional map, that the proposed map violates federal law, that mid-decade redistricting violates the federal constitution, the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause, and is an "unconstitutional racial gerrymander" and an "unconstitutional partisan gerrymander."