Hours after candidates began filing paperwork to run for city office, a federal judge Wednesday denied a request by Pasadena officials to delay her order that the city election be run under an 2011 election scheme to protect the rights of Latino voters. Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal in Houston said Pasadena should conduct its upcoming May elections based on eight single-member districts, throwing out the six single-member and two at-large districts that the judge ruled had diluted the clout of Hispanics.
The focus now shifts to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where Pasadena officials are challenging the judge’s ruling in a landmark voting rights case that has drawn nationwide attention.
The case, filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund on behalf of Hispanic voters, is one of the first to challenge a local jurisdiction after the U.S. Supreme court removed mandatory federal oversight from the Voting Rights Act.
Full Article: Federal judge denies delay in Pasadena voting rights order – Houston Chronicle.
