#teuber

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[texasredistricting]

Teuber plaintiffs ask to dismiss their case

The Teuber plaintiffs have asked the three-judge panel in San Antonio to dismiss their case in its entirety.

Teuber was the first redistricting case filed this cycle and argued that the state's new district lines should be drawn counting only citizens.  The Teuber case was originally filed in Sherman in February but transferred to San Antonio in July.

The motion, filed by the Teuber plaintiffs on Tuesday, simply states that the 'Plaintiffs no longer intend to pursue their claims against Defendants.' 

MALC and the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force had intervened in the case and sought to have it dismissed on jurisdictional and other grounds.

Here's a copy of the Teuber plaintiffs' motion to dismiss:

http://tinyurl.com/3ly6eow

[texasredistricting]

Backgrounder: Meet the Lawyers

A bit of background on some of the principal lawyers involved (to date) in the Texas redistricting litigation:

For the State of Texas

The State of Texas' lead counsel is  David Schenck, Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel. Prior to joining the Attorney General's office in September 2010, Schenck was a partner in the Dallas office of Jones Day. He is a board certified specialist in civil appeals.

Schenck is a 1992 graduate of Baylor Law School, where he was valedictorian and Editor-in-Chief of the Baylor Law Review. 

From 1992-1993, Schenck served as a Law Clerk to the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Honorable Henry A. Politz.

Schenck has been recognized as one of Texas Monthly’s “Super Lawyers” and was recipient of  the Texas State Bar’s President’s Award in 2003.

For the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force

The Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force is represented by Nina Perales, Director of Litigation for the Mexican-American Legal Education and Defense Fund (MALDEF).  

Perales' voting rights work includes representing Latino intervenors in the defense of the federal Voting Rights Act in 2009 (NAMUDNO v. Holder) and in statewide redistricting litigation in Texas and Arizona. Perales also served as lead counsel for Latino challengers in the lawsuit over Texas' 2003 mid-decade congressional redistricting and successfully argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court (LULAC v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399 (2006)).  She also recently secured a Ninth Circuit ruling invalidating Arizona voter registration law as discriminatory.

Among her work in other areas, Perales successfully obtained an injunction in the lawsuit challenging Arizona's anti-immigrant law known as SB 1070; she also is lead counsel in litigation that successfully challenging anti-immigrant laws in Farmers Branch, Texas. 

Perales received her Bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1987 and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law in 1990. Prior to joining MALDEF, Perales worked for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City for five years.

For the Dutton plaintiffs

State Representative Harold Dutton and the Dutton plaintiffs are represented by David Richards of Richard, Rodriguez & Skeith, LLP in Austin.  

From 1982 to 1985, Richards was Executive Assistant Attorney General of Texas supervising the State's litigation. Before that public service, he was General Counsel for the Texas AFL-CIO. Over a varied 50-year practice, Richards has represented clients in the fields of labor and employment law, ERISA issues, civil rights, education law, environmental law, election law/voting rights, constitutional law and governmental regulation.

Richards has handled a number of appellate cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and intermediate federal and state appellate courts. Among the more notable of these cases was White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755 (1973) which established single member legislative districts for the Texas Legislature and Edgewood v. Kirby, 777 S.W. 2d 391 (Tex. 1989), which declared Texas' system of public school funding unconstitutional.

Richards received his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1954 and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1957.

For the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus

MALC is represented by Jose Garza, currently a solo practitioner based in San Antonio.

Since graduating St. Mary's University School of Law in 1978, Garza has been heavily involved in Texas redistricting and voting rights litigation.

Garza is advised in the current round of litigation by Joaquin Avila, Director of National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at the Seattle University School of Law, and Dr. Morgan Kousser of the California Institute of Technology, MALC's expert witness.

After law school, Garza worked for ten years for MALDEF and for over a decade with Texas Rural Legal Aid and its successor, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, including as the organization's director of litigation.

He is the author of 'History, Latinos & Redistricting,' 6 Tex. Hisp. J.L. & Pol'y 125 (2001), and has been an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law and St. Mary's University.  

In addition to his law degree, Garza holds a B.A. from Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville) and a M.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

For LULAC

At the July 1 status conference, LULAC appeared through long-time redistricting attorney George Korbel.

Korbel first came to Texas in late 1971 and has had prominent roles in most major redistricting fights in the state since then, including drawing the alternative congressional redistricting proposals used by Texas LULAC this cycle in its testimony before the Texas Legislature.

In addition to representing LULAC in the current statewide legislative redistricting litigation, Korbel serves as a consultant for San Antonio in connection with city council redistricting and for Travis and Hayes counties in connection with redrawing of their commissioner district lines.

He is a former Texas Regional Counsel for MALDEF and former director of the voting litigation project at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

Korbel's co-counsel on the case is Luis Vera, LULAC's national general counsel.

For the Texas Democratic Party

The Texas Democratic Party is represented by Chad Dunn, its general counsel since 2003 and a partner in Houston firm of Brazil & Dunn.

Dunn graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and Minor in History and Astronomy and earned his Law Degree from South Texas College of Law.

Before going to law school, he was a legislative assistant to State Representative Dawnna Dukes and, during law school, was a policy advisor to State Senator Rodney Ellis.

Dunn was named a 'Rising Star' by Texas Monthly magazine in  2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

For Travis County and the City of Austin (and affiliated individual plaintiffs)

As in the 2001 and 2003 redistricting cases, Travis County and the City of Austin are being represented by well-known Austin lawyer, Renea Hicks. 

Hicks is a 1976 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and has long represented the City of Austin in a variety of matters, including redistricting.

The Austin firm of Scott, Douglass & McConnico serves as Hicks co-counsel. 

For Congressman Henry Cuellar

Congressman Henry Cuellar appeared at the July 1 status conference through San Antonio lawyer, Rolondo Rios.  

Rios is former General Counsel for the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project and has litigated more than 200 cases under the Voting Rights Act.

Rios received his B.A. from St. Mary's University and his J.D. from Georgetown University.  He is a disabled Vietnam veteran and served on President Clinton's Presidential Task Force on the Gulf War Syndrome.

For the Teuber plaintiffs

Up in the Eastern District of Texas, the Teuber plaintiffs are represented by Michael Hull of Hull Hendricks, LLP in Austin.

A 1981 graduate of Texas Tech School of Law, Hull's trial experience includes mass tort work in asbestos, breast implant, tobacco, Norplant and Fen-litigation, numerous product liability matters, defense of pharmaceutical companies, health insurance carriers, medical negligence, construction disputes, employment issues and numerous administrative matters. 

Hull's clients include the pro-tort reform group Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

Hull also served as Co-Chair of the Texas Young Lawyers Voter’s Rights and Registration Committee and as Secretary and Vice-Chair of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse on appointment from Governor Ann Richards. 

He is married to Mignon McGarry, a legislative consultant in Austin. 

[texasredistricting]

San Antonio Bound

Judge Schell in the Eastern District of Texas today transferred the Teuber case to the three-judge panel in the San Antonio cases.

Here's the order: http://tinyurl.com/5uazqk4

If it wasn't before, it's now pretty clear that San Antonio will be the venue of this year's Texas redistricting fights.

No similar order yet in the Rodriguez case in Austin but it should be soon.  Here again is a look at the three-judge panel in San Antonio:

http://tinyurl.com/43m9f3p

[texasredistricting]

More signs

The congressional redistricting case filed by Travis County and the City of Austin in federal court in  Austin now has a three-judge panel.

As was done in the redistricting case pending in Sherman, two of the three judges on the Austin panel (District Judge Orlando Garcia and Circuit Judge Jerry Smith) overlap with the panel previously appointed for the three consolidated cases pending in San Antonio.  

That panel has already set trial in the San Antonio redistricting cases for September 6, and the appointment of overlapping panels points seems to point toward resolution of venue issues in favor of San Antonio.

Here's a copy of Chief Judge Edith Jones' order appointing the Austin panel:

http://tinyurl.com/5vlmq7y

In other redistricting news, Judge Schell held a telephonic conference in the Teuber case in Sherman yesterday but no details are yet available.

[texasredistricting]

State of Texas moves to dismiss Teuber complaint

The State of Texas is asking the newly appointed three-judge panel in the Teuber case in Sherman to dismiss claims.  

The crux of the Teuber case is that only citizens should be counted in drawing new district lines in order to comply with the Constitution's one-person, one-vote requirement. The Plaintiffs are three voters from North Texas.  Their race is not alleged but it is believed that they are all Anglos.

In moving to dismiss, the State of Texas contends that federal courts lack subject-matter jurisdiction over the claims since:

the State is not responsible for the census and lacks the power to adjust the 2010 census population as the Plaintiffs demand, and

the Plaintiffs fail to show "what feasible alternative population base that, if used instead of the Census, would prevent or cure their injuries."

The State also contends that:

Plaintiffs claims about including illegal aliens in counts used for drawing district lines are barred by the State's sovereign immunity under the 11th amendment.

The privileges and immunities clause "does not protect 'rights pertaining to state citizenship'" and thus does not apply to claims about state legislative districts.

The Plaintiffs fail to make any factual allegations to support their claim that their right to vote is being denied or abridged on the basis of race or color.

The Plaintiffs' civil rights claim under section 1983 fails because section 1983 does not create federal substantive rights and, even if it did, the State of Texas, in any event, is not considered a 'person' for purposes of the statute.

The Plaintiffs fail to state a cause of action under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act under the standards articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Thornburg v. Gingles (which relates to when minority-majority districts need to be drawn).

Here's a copy of the State's motion to dismiss:

http://tinyurl.com/6xse97h

[texasredistricting]

More signs of what is to come?: Teuber gets a three-judge panel with two judges from San Antonio panel

In what may be a sign of things to come, the Teuber case in federal court in Sherman has been assigned a three-judge panel with two overlapping judges from the San Antonio panel - Judge Orlando Garcia and Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Smith.   (The third judge is presiding judge Richard Schell of the Eastern District of Texas.)

Here's a copy of the order: http://tinyurl.com/6hko6pf

At last week's status conference in San Antonio, the panel asked the litigants about the possibility that the redistricting cases pending in federal courts around the state could be transferred voluntarily to San Antonio- obviating the need to get into difficult issues under the first-filed rule.

The parties agreed that could happen but also agreed that only a three-judge panel could order the transfer under a strict reading of 28 U.S.C. § 2284.  They also agreed that nothing would prevent Chief Judge Edith Jones from appointing overlapping panel members, perhaps with an eye toward achieving that result. 

No parallel order at this time in the Rodriguez case in Austin.

[texasredistricting]

Federal defendants dismissed from Teuber

As they indicated last week they would do, the Teuber plaintiffs have dismissed Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and US Census director Robert Groves from the Sherman case.

A copy of their notice:

http://tinyurl.com/3elflep