Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Ginsburg snoozes on the bench

From the AP:
Afterward, R. Ted Cruz, the Texas solicitor general, repeated his courtroom arguments that Republicans were only replacing boundaries had been drawn to benefit Democrats and that did not reflect the Republican-leaning state.

"This map on any measure of fairness accurately reflects the way Texans are voting at the polls right now," he said.

The Supreme Court had put the Texas cases on the fast track, scheduling an unusually long two-hour afternoon session.

The subject matter was extremely technical, and near the end of the argument Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dozed in her chair. Justices David Souter and Samuel Alito, who flank the 72-year-old, looked at her but did not give her a nudge.

The court has struggled in the past to define how much politics is acceptable when states draw new boundaries to reflect population shifts.

"The only reason it was considered, let alone passed, was to help one political party get more seats than another," the justices were told by Paul M. Smith, a Washington lawyer who represents several groups challenging the plan.

"That's a surprise," Justice Antonin Scalia joked. "Legislatures redraw the map all the time for political reasons."
Why is anyone offended that Race Baiter Ginsburg napped during arguments? I mean, she's already got her mind made up on all issues anyway. She already knows that she's going to find Texas redestricting unconstitutional because more Republicans in a beet red state are going to continue getting elected. So why bother staying awake during testimony?

Besides, she probably stayed up late at night reading some foreign law on which to base future Supreme Court decisions!