Speaking of Redistricting, When Can We Expect To See A Court Order?

Well, for all things election-litigation related, I like to turn to that excellent source, namely Election Law@Moritz (i.e., the magisterial website maintained by the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, which tracks election-related litigation, legislation, and so on). And so, let’s look at what’s happening in Perez v. Texas:

• http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/PerezVTexas.php

Huh … that’s funny. So … aside from some rather minor procedural wrangling in early June of this year, all the significant briefing deadlines have passed. The last substantive order from the court was a scheduling order back in mid March, asking the parties to submit briefs on a 5th Circuit ruling related to the “mootness” of the fight over the 2011 Texas House of Representatives and Congressional districts. Those briefs are all squarely tucked away and filed, and have been for some time.

In May (with a note of urgency) the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force very politely asked the redistricting panel to issue a ruling finding discriminatory redistricting, damn it.

Let’s see …

May, June, July, August, September. So … five months and counting.

Maybe the panel figures they could just wait for the 2020 census and avoid a lot of needless paperwork.

Or, another way to look at the speedy resolution of this matter is to consider that it’s been … five years since the suit was filed. Which, hey, as an attorney, I know is the merest blink of an eye in the grand slow procession of the law, an edifice resting on the second-hand posthumous recollections of extemporaneous judgments regarding disputes over cattle and land made by long-dead illiterate Saxon barons in the dim recesses of Danelaw and Alfred the Great.

So, you know, it’s not a structure built for speed.

But still, … all the substantive briefing was completed a long time ago. What’s the hold-up?