Court Opinion

ID: 9883655
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:06:13.854528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:28.176021
License: Public Domain

WALTER S. SMITH, Jr., District Judge,
dissenting in part.
I join in the majority as to the dismissal of the house action as moot, as to the granting of Defendants’ motions for summary judgment on Plaintiffs’ claims of partisan gerrymandering of the Texas senate, as to the granting of Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Plaintiffs’ congressional section 2 and partisan gerrymandering claims.
I cannot, however, concur in the granting of Defendants’ motion for summary judgment as to the section 2 senate claims.
The linchpin of the majority’s opinion is that the finding made in two previous opinions of this Court, that the redistricting plan continuously espoused by the Defendants violated the Section 2 requirements of the Voting Rights Act, was superfluous. Apparently one of the majority’s memory differs from mine; and the other member of the majority can have no memory of that determination, not having been a member of this Court at that time.
The majority faults our former opinions for not including sufficient factual details. I disagree with that position, but in any event, that is not a sound reason to ignore a previous determination.
This Court has consistently and repeatedly held that the senatorial election plan now known as S.B.l is violative of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court has declined to overturn that finding on several occasions. Nothing presented as summary judgment proof has convinced me that our previous determinations were incorrect.
I would grant Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment as to the senate section 2 claim.