U.S. justices question Texas 'one person, one vote' challenge

[WhiteTara]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-election-idUSKBN0TR25A20151208

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared skeptical toward a conservative challenge to the method Texas uses to draw state legislative districts in a case that could diminish the clout of Hispanic voters and boost the power of rural, often Republican voters.

During oral arguments in the case, a clear majority of the nine justices did not indicate how exactly the court will rule.

The plaintiffs, Texans Sue Evenwel and Edward Pfenninger, contend that the current process for counting voters, based not on the number of eligible voters but rather on total population, violates the long-established legal principle of "one person, one vote" endorsed by the Supreme Court in the 1960s.

At issue is whether state legislative districts should contain the same number of people or whether they instead should contain the same number of eligible voters.

It was unclear how conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often casts the deciding vote in close cases, would vote. Both he and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether states could bridge the gap between using total population and the number of eligible voters when drawing districts.

[merrily]

1. Some fair court needs to squint at all gerrymandering. Not sure any court has the spine, though.