For a few days I’ve been saving string, as the phrase goes, on what may turn out to be the most interesting, even the most important, phase of the Texas redistricting battle.
As all the parties have always known it would be, the whole issue is now the subject of a court case — largely over claims that the new districting dilutes minority voting power.
Now, the plaintiffs in the case have subpoenaed Tom DeLay and fellow Texas Congressman Joe Barton to give sworn testimony in the case.
Lawyers for DeLay and Barton are trying to have the subpoenas quashed, arguing that no court has ever required the testimony of sitting congressmen in a redistricting case.
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs has responded that DeLay’s testimony “is clearly legally significant to this case because, unlike any member of Congress in any prior redistricting process, he unquestionably played the central role in Texas redistricting in 2003.”
The centrality of Delay’s role is demonstrably true.
A three judge panel has set a hearing for Monday to decide whether DeLay gets to avoid discussing his role in what happened this summer.
