10.07.2015 Views

petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog

petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog

petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant ... - Election Law Blog

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

10aAppendix B<strong>the</strong> court does acknowledge that “while this [CVAP] issueis a close question, we find that <strong>the</strong> choice of populationfigures is a choice left <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> political process.” Id. at 523.However, <strong>the</strong> “close question” was not whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> amoun<strong>to</strong>f vote dilution was extreme enough <strong>to</strong> warrant judicialintervention. The “close question” referred <strong>to</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>courts should intervene in <strong>the</strong> selection of a populationbaseline. The Fifth Circuit held <strong>the</strong>y should not. Id.The <strong>Court</strong> also rejects Plaintiffs’ attempt <strong>to</strong> limit <strong>the</strong>Chen holding <strong>to</strong> “<strong>the</strong> specific circumstances of that case.”(Docket # 25 n. 18.) Though <strong>the</strong> court does state at <strong>the</strong>beginning of its opinion that “<strong>the</strong> use of <strong>to</strong>tal population<strong>to</strong> track <strong>the</strong> size of <strong>the</strong> districts does not, under <strong>the</strong>secircumstances, violate <strong>the</strong> Equal Protection Clause,” itconcludes its opinion with <strong>the</strong> following language, “But in[<strong>the</strong>] face of <strong>the</strong> lack of more definitive guidance from <strong>the</strong><strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong>, we conclude that this eminently politicalquestion has been left <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> political process.” Chen,206 F.3d at 505, 528. Plaintiffs have not demonstratedthat, under <strong>the</strong>se circumstances, <strong>the</strong> Fifth Circuit wouldrequire this court <strong>to</strong> intervene in <strong>the</strong> political process andjudicially mandate Irving <strong>to</strong> track <strong>the</strong> size of <strong>the</strong> districtsby CVAP instead of by population.For <strong>the</strong>se reasons, <strong>the</strong> <strong>Court</strong> hereby GRANTSsummary judgment for <strong>the</strong> City of Irving, DENIESsummary judgment for Plaintiffs, and DENIESDefendant-Intervenors’ motion for summary judgmentas MOOT.It is SO ORDERED.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!