If Tom DeLay was hoping to draw a panel of friendly conservative judges for his appeal, he didn’t get what he hoped for. The three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals who’ll be hearing DeLay’s case has been named – and it consists of two Clinton appointees.
One of the GOP’s first strategic moves in the case was to move it from state to federal court, where it could be heard by a judge they thought was reliably conservative. But in a harshly worded opinion, the George H.W. Bush-nominated Sam Sparks ruled against them.
A decision is expected sometime in the first two weeks of August.
