Shorter Supreme Court

States can change your districts every day if they want.

I guess the whole "states shall apportion their districts every 10 years based on the Census" is one of those quaint Constitutional provisions. Actually, as the case was explained on NPR this morning, there was some question as to its intent. One commentator said this only holds if a court set up the districts previously, another said states could gerrymander at their own whim.

Oddly, the Supremes, after deciding not to get involved in regulating gerrymandering an entire state, DID manage to go micro and get involved in the 23rd District, the gerrymander of which they said violated the Voting Rights Act (you know, the thing Republicans are trying to hold up on renewal). Off the Kuff, a Texas blogger, gives his thoughts as to the implications of redrawing Republican Henry Bonilla's district, the one in question:

I'm not sure at this point if the three-judge panel that originally upheld the new map will be tasked with putting a replacement in place, or if the Legislature has to do it; neither am I sure if this needs to be done for 2006, or if a special election will be required for some point in the future - this could include an open primary in November, as we had in 1996.

What I do think will happen is that at the very least CD28 will be redrawn as well. If it's possible to swap the CD23 portion of Webb County for an equivalent piece of CD28, that could work. What happens after that is a decision for CD28's Rep. Henry Cuellar. He nearly toppled CD23 incumbent Henry Bonilla in 2002 thanks in part to getting 80% of the vote in Webb County. He did knock off fellow Democrat Ciro Rodriguez in the 2004 primary on a similar show of strength in Webb, and he won again in the same fashion in 2006. Without Webb, Cuellar probably can't beat Rodriguez or someone like him with a strong base in Bexar County. With Webb, Cuellar would have a shot at Bonilla, but I don't know that it would be better than a coin flip. Either way, it's a tough call.

Eventually, this could mean a pickup for the Democrats in South Texas, but I'm not comfortable with the Supreme Court picking and choosing what districts they like or don't like while generally endorsing the whole scheme.