Legal Battles 'State by State'

ATLANTA: The Southeastern Legal Foundation, which successfully litigated the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court challenge against the use of statistical sampling for apportionment (Glavin, et al v. Clinton, et al), today praised U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans for his initial recommendation to use only the actual head count numbers for redistricting.

"Bottom line on this subject is, the American people win, our system of representative democracy wins, and we at Southeastern Legal win," said Lynn Hogue, SLF President. "The question of sampled numbers has been asked and answered by the U.S. Supreme Court, the statisticians looking at accuracy, and now, by the legally appointed overseer of the census."

"The U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Commerce Department, and the Bush administration deserve credit for resisting partisan political pressure and making the right choice based on the law and the accuracy question," said Hogue. "Undoubtedly, liberal groups and certain local governments will attempt litigation to force the use of sampled numbers, but they will fail, just as their predecessors in the 1990s failed."

"Southeastern Legal Foundation is ready, willing and able to assist any state Attorney General who may be forced through frivolous litigation to defend their state's use of actual count census numbers for redistricting," said Hogue. "Specifically, we are prepared to meet any legal challenge facing the federal government or any state which will be asked to spend taxpayer money to defend the legal use of actual head count census numbers."

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