After the Colorado Supreme Court tossed the state GOP's 2003 midnight re-redistricting plan, GOP bitter enders vowed an end run into federal court, hoping to get the scheme reimplemented. Late Friday afternoon, a three judge federal panel
threw out the GOP's case, saying it would not get involved unless the US Supreme Court reverses the Colorado Supreme Court ruling. Cries of "biased activist judges!" have necessarily been more muted this time. As Colorado Democratic Party chair Chris Gates asked, "how many courts have to tell them that the legislation passed last year was unconstitutional?"
Both Gates and Attorney General Ken Salazar called on the GOP to drop the appeals. As I've said before, Democrats in the Colorado legislature should make it clear that if the GOP expects their help and compromises on budget relief, the first budget item that must be cut is the money the state is spending on the Republicans' naked partisan power grab.
As for the re-redistricting case itself, it apparently will be up to the US Supreme Court to decide, once again, whether it will overturn a state Supreme Court's decision based on state law in order to further the electoral ambitions of the Republican Party. My best guess is that they will not touch it -- if they didn't intervene in the New Jersey senate race dispute in 2002 they won't bring back memories of Bush v. Gore just to save a couple of House seats that are already in GOP hands. Especially when they can also deny review in the Texas re-redistricting case and leave the GOP with a net gain.