MAJORITY RULES

Dewhurst can change Senate's two-thirds rule, Justice Department says: Ruling comes day before Republicans and Democrats head to federal court (Austin AMERICAN-STATESMAN, August 26, 2003)

As the Legislature ended its second special session on congressional redistricting today, all the players in the partisan standoff geared up to take their battle to a Laredo courtroom on Wednesday.

But within hours of the session's end, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a ruling that raised new questions about whether the courts will have any authority to settle the dispute.

The ruling found that the Senate did not need pre-clearance from the Justice Department to get rid of an internal rule that requires two-thirds of senators to sign off on any legislation.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had waived that rule to clear the way for a new congressional map that would likely give Republicans a majority in the state's 32-member congressional delegation. The map is supported by a majority of state senators, but not two-thirds.

Senate Democrats - who left the state to break the Senate's quorum and kill the map - sued in federal court, saying Dewhurst had violated the federal Voting Rights Act by changing the chamber's rules to draw a new map that will affect minority voters.

"Our analysis indicates that the practice in question is an internal legislative parliamentary rule or practice - not a change affecting voting - and therefore is not subject to the preclearance requirement," Joseph Rich, chief of the voting section in the Justice Department's civil rights division wrote to state officials.

Federal law requires changes to voting patterns or districts in southern states to be considered by the Justice Department before taking effect to ensure that minorities' voting rights are protected.

Now where are they going to hide? Posted by Orrin Judd at August 26, 2003 8:36 PM