High court looks at GOP redistricting in Texas

DeLay's archrival voted out in 2004
Braden dismissed such claims as a smoke screen. Allegations concerning the Voting Rights Act are “all about Martin Frost...The court has said minority voters can elect a candidate of their choice,” he said.

Frost, DeLay’s archrival in Congress, was one of four Democrats swept out of office in 2004. His old district included about 60 percent minority voters. It was broken up by Republicans and he lost in 2004 to a GOP incumbent in a district that was majority white. Angle is Frost’s former top aide.

Overall, the number of African-American and Hispanic Texas lawmakers in Congress rose from eight to nine after the district lines were redrawn.

The Justice Department approved the plan as acceptable under the Voting Rights Act, reversing a recommendation from staff lawyers who concluded it diluted minority voting rights.

The legal dispute flows from a bare-knuckled political clash.

Texas Republicans have long claimed that they were underrepresented in the House as the result of previous redistricting plans drawn by Democrats. DeLay, the former House majority leader, led a successful campaign to capture control of the legislature by Republicans in 2002, and the following year party leaders pushed through the plan to redraw the district lines.

Democrats struggled — several lawmakers fled the state at one point in an attempt to prevent the legislature from acting — but Republicans eventually prevailed.

Ironically, DeLay, one of the most powerful lawmakers in Congress, soon found himself in jeopardy. The House ethics committee admonished him for asking a federal agency to help tracking the aircraft that flew Democrats out of state.

Months later, county prosecutor Ronnie Earle charged DeLay with conspiracy and money laundering in connection with fundraising for the legislative candidates in 2002. DeLay denied any guilt, but was required to give up his leadership post while the case was pending. His hopes of reclaiming power have since collapsed, and he faces a difficult re-election season in Texas.

The Supreme Court declined a request by The Associated Press to speed up release of audio tapes of the two-hour argument. Reporters are not allowed to bring cameras or other recording equipment into court, but justices have sometimes made audio tapes of arguments in major cases available immediately.

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