AP - A panel of federal judges has delivered a blow to Colorado Republicans and dismissed the last lawsuit filed over congressional boundaries imposed by a state court.
A panel of federal judges has delivered a blow to Colorado Republicans and dismissed the last lawsuit filed over congressional boundaries imposed by a state court.
The ruling, handed down Friday, means district lines drawn by a Denver judge remain in effect.
The dispute dates to the 2000 census, which showed Colorado's population grew enough to earn the state a seventh seat in the U.S. House. The Legislature, then split between Republicans and Democrats, failed to agree on new boundaries in time for the 2002 elections, prompting a Denver judge to map the districts.
By 2003, Republicans had gained control of the Legislature and adopted a new redistricting map to replace the court-imposed map.
When Democrats challenged the GOP-favored map, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature gets only one chance a decade to redistrict and lawmakers missed that chance when they failed to agree on a plan in 2002. Justices threw out the 2003 map and restored the state court's map.
The federal lawsuit had asked judges to reinstate the district lines drafted by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The lawsuit argued that the court-imposed map violates the constitutional right of citizens to vote for congressional candidates in districts created by the Legislature.
In dismissing the lawsuit on Friday, the federal judges asserted that the case has already been decided by Colorado's Supreme Court.
Brett Lilly, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the federal suit, said Monday the judge's redistricting map and the state Supreme Court ruling violated the U.S. Constitution, which says redistricting must be handled by the Legislature. Lilly also objected to the state justices' conclusion that the Colorado Constitution prohibits mid-decade redistricting.
Lilly said he plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
08-14-2006, 09:46 PM
