More on Virginia redistricting
I asked Gerry Hebert, the plaintiffs' counsel, for a comment on the decision of the Fourth Circuit against his clients. Gerry responded:
I believe that having an artificial and inflexible 50% threshold for minority voters to cross over before they can establish a prima facie case of vote dilution makes little sense. As the Justice Department has noted each time this issue has come up, a functional approach is more consistent with the intent of Congress. There is now a clear conflict between the 1st circuit and the 4th (as well as the 5th and 11th,). The supreme court has a chance to resolve this issue in the pending TX appeal and we should know this week if the Court intends to take the issue up.