cerberus
12-12-2005, 06:44 PM
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide a challenge by Democrats, minority groups and others to the 2003 congressional redistricting plan in Texas engineered by Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.
The high court agreed to review a ruling by a federal three-judge panel upholding the bitterly contested map that had been approved by Republican political appointees at the U.S. Justice Department over the objections of career lawyers.
DeLay, the former second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, strongly supported the plan. He was forced to relinquish his post in September when he was charged with money laundering in Texas after a campaign financing investigation.
Democrats twice stymied efforts to adopt the plan in the Texas Legislature by leaving the state and denying the majority Republicans a quorum but it was finally passed in a third special session. In the 2004 elections, the Texas redistricting plan helped Republicans add to their slim majority in the House. If upheld by the Supreme Court, the plan is expected to make it harder for Democrats to win control of the House in the November, 2006, elections.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-12-12T192729Z_01_DIT255476_RTRUKOC_0_US-COURT-REDISTRICTING.xml&archived=False
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide a challenge by Democrats, minority groups and others to the 2003 congressional redistricting plan in Texas engineered by Republican U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.
The high court agreed to review a ruling by a federal three-judge panel upholding the bitterly contested map that had been approved by Republican political appointees at the U.S. Justice Department over the objections of career lawyers.
DeLay, the former second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, strongly supported the plan. He was forced to relinquish his post in September when he was charged with money laundering in Texas after a campaign financing investigation.
Democrats twice stymied efforts to adopt the plan in the Texas Legislature by leaving the state and denying the majority Republicans a quorum but it was finally passed in a third special session. In the 2004 elections, the Texas redistricting plan helped Republicans add to their slim majority in the House. If upheld by the Supreme Court, the plan is expected to make it harder for Democrats to win control of the House in the November, 2006, elections.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-12-12T192729Z_01_DIT255476_RTRUKOC_0_US-COURT-REDISTRICTING.xml&archived=False