Capital Highlights
by ED STERLING
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last week accused the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division of delaying the requisite preclearance of new state House and Senate electoral maps adopted last spring by the state Legislature.
In a Dec. 1 letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Tom Perez of the Civil Rights Division, Abbott said that such delays harm Texas voters. Perez responded, attributing the delays to Abbott’s legal maneuvers on behalf of the state.
In November, Abbott requested that the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, hear the case in mid-December so district lines would be set, candidates could file the necessary forms and the way to normal primary elections in March would be cleared. But the federal Civil Rights Division requested five additional months of discovery in litigation brought by opponents of the maps.
Abbott said the request “can only be construed as a misguided effort to further postpone an expeditious resolution of this case.”
Also, on Dec. 2, Abbott and the state’s chief litigator, Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell, filed a U.S. Supreme Court brief in support of the state’s earlier petition for an emergency stay of the U.S. district court’s redrawn redistricting maps and asserted again that the state had fulfilled requirements for preclearance under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
With the state and federal justice systems operating on separate timetables and political urgencies, pressures are mounting. Dec. 15 is the last day to file for a place on the ballot and three months remain until the March 6 primary election date.
Ed Sterling works for the Texas Press Association and follows the Legislature for the association.
