Friday, October 14, 2005

Election Law at the Court

Professor Hasen has reported that the Texas Redistricting case, which deals in part with mid-decade redistricting efforts, will be heard in conference on Oct. 28.

The Vieth Case, whose dissenters were the more liberal wing of the Court, who along with Justice Kennedy, seem to be looking for a way to overcome the political questions nature of a political gerrymander will get another crack at the question.

Given my belief that there must be some standards which can be found (I fully reject the belief of Justice Scalia that because standards have been found and he can't find any therefore none exist), I think this case will not be the one to find those standards. The question presented is narrowly tailored to the mid-decade redistricting issue. If the Court decides to hold a full argument instead of issuing a summary affirmance (which Prof. Hasen believes (scroll down)will happen), there may not be any discussion of factors.

While I am also not a big fan of deciding political issues in the court, redistricting is one such issue where the courts will need to act if we are to come to any point where elections are going to be more competitive.

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