Opening arguments presented on redistricting

Minority groups are claiming that their strength at the ballot box is being deliberately diluted

Some nicknames for districts so far: "the deer," "the elbow," "the transformer," and "the (middle) finger" -- http://twitter.com/#!/mcpli

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Meanwhile in Washington, the NAACP (Texas branches) have joined the Texas Black Legislative Caucus in seeking to intervene in the state’s pre-clearance suit. Here’s a copy of the NAACP’s motion: http://tinyurl.com/3v8wujg A group of individual plaintiffs represented by Renea Hicks and Marc Elias also are seeking to intervene. Earlier the court allowed State Senator Wendy Davis and State Representative Marc Veasey to intervene.

For a full recap and regular updates: http://txredistricting.org/

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By Nolan Hicks
San Antonio Express-News
nhicks@express-news.net
Updated 11:38 p.m., Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Read the complete story

After months of legal filings and lawyers wrangling, a panel of three federal judges in San Antonio listened to opening arguments Tuesday morning in a key trial that encompasses several challenges to the state's redistricting maps.

Minority groups charged in their opening statements that Republicans in the state Legislature actively worked to dilute the voting power of minority voters. Their method: packing them into existing minority districts and failing to create new minority opportunity districts to reflect the state's booming Hispanic and African American populations.

The maps passed by the Texas Legislature amounted to a “racial gerrymander” that represented “intentional discrimination,” Jose Garza, attorney for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, told the judges.

Garza said the evidence the minority groups had been able to collect through the court process so far almost amounted to a smoking gun that discrimination against minorities was a driving motivation behind the design of the map.

Key Republicans involved in the redistricting process long have denied the charges, pointing to logistical challenges of drawing additional minority districts when the population boom was spread out across all areas of the state.