COURT REJECTS BID TO REDISTRICT COLO. MAP

January 24, 2004

The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON - A federal court in Colorado refused yesterday to rescue a new Republican-drafted map for the state's congressional districts, leaving intact an earlier court-ordered plan that is less favorable to the GOP.

In the latest development in the nationwide battle to shape future control of the House of Representatives, a three-judge US District Court in Denver ruled unanimously that it could not second-guess a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court last month striking down the GOP plan enacted by the state Legislature last May.

Only the US Supreme Court could review that ruling, the District Court said.

Republicans occupy five of Colorado 's seven seats in the US House of Representatives. But the plan that won in court could give Democrats a chance to pick up two, or perhaps three, of those seats, according to political analysts in the state. That is why the Republican House wanted to replace it.

The GOP's plan would have solidified its hold on all five of the seats they hold, without disturbing the Democrats' hold on the other two.

With the Colorado fight now headed for the US Supreme Court, but with little chance that the case can be heard there in time to affect the November election, the GOP appears to have failed in Colorado with the same tactic that recently succeeded in Texas.

There, the Republican-controlled Legislature replaced a court-ordered redistricting plan with one of their own last year.

The court plan had resulted in a 16-to-16 split of Texas 's delegates to the US House of Representatives. After a bitter partisan battle, the Legislature approved a map that could give Republicans a 22-to-10 advantage, and further secure their party's control of Congress.

The Republican plan there was upheld by a federal District Court early this month, and will be used this fall.

In Colorado , the federal District Court ruled yesterday that it had no jurisdiction to hear a Republican lawsuit seeking to reinstate the Colorado Legislature's plan. That plan was nullified by the state Supreme Court last month.

The state court had ruled that the congressional districts could be changed only once in each decade, and the state courts had already done so.

Under that ruling, a redistricting plan drawn up by a state court in 2002 is the one that now seems likely to be used in November, unless the US Supreme Court takes extraordinary steps to block it.