Colorado Court overturns GOP gerrymander

[Sayhey]

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the attempt by the State's GOP to redraw the lines for Congressional Districts violates the State's Constitution.

DENVER (AP) -- In a decision with national implications, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out the state's new congressional districts Monday saying the GOP-led Legislature redrew the maps in violation of the state constitution.

The General Assembly is required to redraw the maps only after each Census and before the ensuing general election -- not at any other time, the court said in a closely watched 5-2 decision that followed party lines. A similar court battle is being waged in Texas.

Under the ruling, Colorado's seven congressional districts revert to boundaries drawn up by a Denver judge last year after lawmakers failed to agree.

The issue before the court was whether the redistricting map pushed through the Legislature by Republicans this year was illegal. Colorado's constitution calls for redistricting only once a decade and Democrats contended that task was completed by the judge.

link (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Redistricting-Lawsuit.html?hp)

[mactastic]

Good. Colorado, from what I understand, had one of the more fair divisions of districts in the country.

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by mactastic
Good. Colorado, from what I understand, had one of the more fair divisions of districts in the country.

Yep, this GOP attempt will probably fail. Colorado has a great state constitution that effectively keeps state spending under control and keeps crap like this in line.

Colorado politics are a little odd. We have pockets of arguably the most conservative and the most liberal people in the nation.

[Sayhey]

I hope that the Texas redistricting effort follows suit, but it seems that this was based largely on the Colorado constitution so it may have little impact on Texas. The story claims it will have "national" impact so I can hope Tom Delay's Texas coup maybe overturned. Seems like an issue that is bound to end up before the US Supreme Court. If so, it is unlikely to be decided in time to effect the 2004 election. Anyone know the make up of the Texas Supreme Court?

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by Sayhey
I hope that the Texas redistricting effort follows suit, but it seems that this was based largely on the Colorado constitution so it may have little impact on Texas. The story claims it will have "national" impact so I can hope Tom Delay's Texas coup maybe overturned. Seems like an issue that is bound to end up before the US Supreme Court. If so, it is unlikely to be decided in time to effect the 2004 election. Anyone know the make up of the Texas Supreme Court?

I think it's worth noting that Colorado has a lot more liberals percentage wise then Texas and tends to be more moderate. I have a feeling there will be a lot less opposition in Texas.

[ColoJohnBoy]

Colorado more moderate? Eh? I remember back in 1992 when voters passed Amendment Two, which banned any law being passed on any level in Colorado that designated crimes motivated by sexual orientation as hate crimes. I don't recall the exact details, but it went further than that.

No, as a Liberal Democrat living in Colorado, I can tell you with certainty that, while there are a couple isolated spots of liberal attitude (Boulder and Central Denver) the rest is pretty solidly GWB conservative republican.

And I don't think Colorado is very fairly districted if in four of the seven districts, the vote percentage of Republican v. Democrat candidates is 60% or more.

Anyhow, thank God for the Colorado Supreme Court.

[mactastic]

Holy crap, you guys only have 7 congressional districts? I can practically walk to the next district here!

[SPG]

What the republicans have been doing is throwing away the rules of fairplay since they are in a position of power now. They've been calling for a conservative movement that would push on the people a revolution of conservative ideals and they've been quite successful at it lately. The only problem with trashing the rules when you're in power is not having them when you're out of power.