Redistricting lawyer sends Texas his bill: With $400-an-hour legal fees, costs hit $735,398
Defending the state of Texas in court is an awesome responsibility, and I'm pleased that we won the case. Anyone who observed the court proceeding would realize that it's really a David-and-Goliath scenario. Twenty-six high-powered lawyers were against you, and I would suspect that the cost of representation on the losing side of the case greatly exceeded our cost in winning the case.
- Andy Taylor
Not only did the voters of Texas take it in the shorts, we've also had to pay for the privilege of being Tom DeLay's personal political fiefdom. And guess what, y'all? It's not done yet. If Democrats follow through on their threat to take redistricting to the US Supreme Court, the bill to taxpayers could grow, although Taylor expects state attorneys to handle the appeals process.
AUSTIN -- The private lawyer defending Texas' new Republican-backed congressional redistricting map has billed the state $735,398 for work and expenses in the legal battle over the GOP plan.
Andy Taylor, a Houston-based lawyer, has charged $400 per hour of his time, $200 per hour for work by another lawyer, and assorted expenses for travel and payment to expert witnesses, according to state documents examined Wednesday by The Associated Press.
A total of $444,438 in bills from Taylor's law firm have been paid by the state, according to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office.
Some $290,960 of the bill is expected to be paid in early February. It was charged for work in December, when Taylor defended the state at trial in a lawsuit alleging the redistricting plan violates minority voting rights.
The state won that clash, and now some Democrats and minority groups who sued over the plan are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I agree that the DeLay Redistricting Plan is an absolute travesty. It is craven political posturing at it's absolute worst. Even so, at some point Texas Democrats need to understand when it is time to keep their powder dry so that they may live to fight another day. Continuing to flush tax dollars down the rabbit hole in the pursuit of a principle that has consistently been overruled is hardly a wise use of scarce resources. That will certainly not do Texas Democrats any favors at the polls in November.
At this point, Democrats would be well advised to focus their energies on trying to regain a degree of relevance here in Texas. Outside of Austin, Democrats are an afterthought, and they have done nothing to change that reality. Continuing to spit into the wind on the issue of redistricting certainly is not going to help further their cause.
