Thursday, December 30, 2010

Redistricting update: "Cry Havoc, and Loose The Dogs..."

...Of Litigation...

Having been unsurprisingly unsuccessful in their attempt to intimidate the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments into changing the pool of possible appointees to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) to one more of their liking, Russell Pearce and Kirk Adams are turning to the Arizona Supreme Court in another ploy to get their way.

From the Phoenix New Times' Stephen Lemons -
Well that didn't take long. As anticipated, state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce and his so-far compliant wingman state House Speaker Kirk Adams, are taking to court their bid to rig Arizona's Independent Redistricting Commission.


After being shot down yesterday by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which showed some backbone and refused to remove three nominees to the IRC as Pearce and Adams had demanded, Pearce and Adams have asked the Arizona Supreme Court to weigh in and force the Commission to do the pair's bidding.

It's a move that has all the subtlety of a South American coup.

Didn't really need the last line of that quote for this post, but Lemons' line is a good one, and deserves a little recognition.  :)

The petition for special action went out over the names of Peter Gentala, counsel for the House of Representatives, and Gregrey Jernigan, counsel from the Senate, who will argue for Pearce and Adams.  The Appellate Court Appointments commission will be defended by the Arizona Attorney General's office, which, given the fact that Tom Horne, one of Pearce's fellow travellers on the nativist path to political power, will be the AG by the time this reaches a hearing, the "defense" may more closely resemble the Washington Generals than the Attorney General for this case.

And no matter how things turn out, the taxpayers will be footing the bill for both sides of the fight.

The Arizona Supreme Court's "high profile cases" webpage is here.  It contains both the special action filing (linked above, courtesy the Phoenix New Times) and a motion for expedited consideration.

Stay tuned...

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