Friday, January 20, 2012

US Supreme Court Slaps Down Texas Democrats

The United States Supreme Court ruled UNANIMOUSLY against Texas Democrats today, in a resounding defeat for judicial activism.

The center of the controvery is the Congressional district redraw mandated by the results of the 2010 census.

Republicans control the State Houses in Texas. The State is responsible for drawing districts for the US Congress. Since the dawn of time, redrawing of districts by the party in power has been a time honored way of protecting and expanding the ruling party's dominance. Is it dirty, yeah. Is it legal, yeah. Do both parties do it, yeah - whoever is in power sets the rules.

Republicans took the 2010 census data and drew a districting map that favored them retaining and possibly expanding Republican representation for Texas in the US House of Representatives. Is this a nice, fair thing to do - probably not. But, Democrats did it the last time they were in power in Texas, and so on back through our state's history. Its just the way things are done.

Democrats pitched a fit, from the Obama White House on down. They wanted a Democrat drawn redistricting plan put into place, which would gain them up to 4 seats in the US House, by drawing districts that guarantee almost 100% minority voting blocks. Obama's DoJ, led by Eric Holder, declared the Republican maps illegal. They went to a US District Court in San Antonio, which issued an injunction against Texas' plan, and instead drew their own districts. Yes, the court, staffed by three Democrats who have no election experience, drew up a redistricting plan and tried to force it on Texas. Obama's DoJ stuck its nose into the mess, saying they upheld the court's plan as legal and fair.

Texas took the matter to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the San Antonio court had no business coming up with their own map. All 9 members of the Supreme Court agreed with the decision.

The Supreme Court did not rule on the legality of the Republican map, because that was not the issue before it.

The matter was returned to the Democrat controlled count in San antonio to redraw the maps, which is absolutely ridiculous. The matter legally belongs to the Texas State Houses.

Politics are a hard, dirty game. However, there are rules, and just because you don't like how something is being done, doesn't mean you can circumvent or disregard the rules (in spite of what the Obama crowd seems to think).

Democrats, you have been bitch slapped!

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