Galveston County Judge, Mark Henry, On How His Case Against The Biden DOJ Could Change Congress

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The Michael Berry Show. Galveston Countyhas a case against the Biden Department of
Justice that is estimated to be ableto lead to a Republican pickup in the
House of a dozen seats. Becausewe can't lose a Republican seat right now
in the House or Nancy Pelosi orJeffries takes over. It's razor thin right

(00:27):
now. Every seat matters. TheDepartment of Justice, NAACP and lou LAC
are suing Galveston County for redrawing itscongressional district to be more reflective of the
demographics. And what they've done inthe past is what is known as coalition

(00:47):
districts, where they basically create SheilaJackson Lee district. People ask me,
how does Sheila keep getting elected?Sheila gets elected before the first vote is
cast. That district was set sothat Republicans wouldn't be in there. She
only has to win with Democrats,and it's certain Democrats. Galveston County Judge

(01:10):
Mark Henry is our guest. Welcome, Good morning, Michael. You can
never go wrong with Glenn Campbell exactly. New York Post headline This Texas voting
case could determine who controls. Congress, tell me about this case and why
Galveston County is involved. Galveston Countyis involved because the Biden DOJ thought they

(01:34):
could come down and beat up onthe little bitty county like Galveston and intimidate
us into creating an artificial district,which you just correctly described as a coalition
district. The coalition district. Thereare not enough Blacks for African Americans in
Galveston County. There's only thirteen percent. They said, you've got to add
Hispanics, but not any Hispanics.They got to be Democrat voting Hispanics to

(01:55):
get up to a commissioner's precinct inGalveston County. I told them no,
and feel free to sue us,which they did, and they were going
to regard us. It came outat trials they were going to sue us
no matter which map we adopted.It didn't really matter at this point,
though it's working out fine. Welost at the trial court, which we
fully expected. Judge brown hands weretied. The Fifth Circuit in nineteen ninety

(02:17):
four had ruled that coalition districts arerecognizable, so his hands were tied.
We understand that we appealed to theFifth Circuit on this coalition district issue.
A three judge panel, as youknow, comes first before a full court,
a non bom full court. Thethree judge panel said something very interesting.

(02:37):
They said, we have to rulethat coalition districts exist because we ruled
that way in nineteen ninety four.Here's where it gets fun. Then they
said, but we were wrong,Please appeal to the full court. So
we did that and within I thinkit was three days, had an approval
for a full court hearing, whichoccurred Tuesday morning at nine o'clock. So
this case is about coalition districts andthe fact that we don't believe that there

(03:00):
are a recognizable claim. The SixthCircuit has already ruled that way. The
Fifth Circuit again in ninety four,in the split decision nine to five.
I believe it was said, yesyou can, coalition districts can exist.
And now I think that the tonehas changed. There are seven Trump appointees
on the Fifth Circuit. I suspectyou're going to get a favorable ruling out

(03:22):
of the Fifth Circuit saying no,you don't have to draw coalition districts.
They only exist to advance a politicalparty, and it's not the Republican Party.
Now. One of the things thatdoes not get discussed often is that
some measures that were taken, wecan argue whether they were a good measure

(03:43):
at the time or not. Butthe Department of Justice has essentially taken over
the drawing of maps in the stateof Texas. And this goes back to
the Civil Rights Act. This goesback a number of decades. This goes
back long before I was born.There has to come a point where there
is a sunset to this sort ofbehavior. And this idea of saying we're

(04:06):
going to create a Democrat Hispanic districtover here, in a Black Democrat district
over here. It is antithetical toa sense of community. It is saying
we can't trust people to vote forthe best candidate, and it engenders a
great deal of bitterness, certainly,And you're correct on all those points.

(04:30):
So the Voting Rights Act was anactor in nineteen sixty five, and to
your point, you're right. Atsome point, either the reforms of the
Voting Rights Act had the intended consequenceor they're not going to have the intended
consequence, And that's called a temporallimits argument, and we're not really making
that because we think coalition and districtsare stronger. But that's a very good
point. At some point, eitherit worked or it's not going to work.

(04:51):
It can't go on for another onehundred years. You know what fascinates
me, Mark Henry is the countyjudge of Galveston County. What fascinates me
is this idea that a coalition districta blacks creating a black district is somehow
protecting the rights of minorities, andthat really means blacks. But if you

(05:15):
look at places where a black Democratis in government, there is squalor crime,
corruption, New Orleans under LaToya theDestroyer and Ray Nagan, Baltimore's mayor
went to prison. San Francisco recalledtheir mayor. We've lived through eight years
of hell under Sylvester Turner Chicago.Now, I mean, it just goes

(05:39):
on and on and on, andat some point we have to pierce the
veil on And it's not even apartisan issue, this idea that blacks have
to have a black leader elected officialin order to preserve their interests, because
that's not true. In fact,it's often the opposite of true. Agreed,

(05:59):
And at the moment we have twoblacks on Commissioner's court, one Republican,
one Democrat. No one's really fightingto save the Republican, of course,
And I will say that I dohave an exception with my Democrat commissioner.
He is a very smart, intelligentman. Winter Rice played football there.
He is not in the same categoryas the others you just mentioned.
I like him a lot. It'snot personal. If he had switched parties,

(06:21):
I suspect he'd get re elected.When we redistricted, we just threw
a plus sign on the county andsaid, now move it to get the
population where it needs to be.And that's our map. If you look
at our map that we adopted,it is the most concise and what I
would call normal looking map, becauseagain, take a plus sign and just
move the bars over up and down, left and right to get the population

(06:42):
equal. That's all we did.Well, I'm glad you're taking on the
case because the president this is settingis going to be very important for our
country and for good governance. That'sthe most important part. Galveston County Judge
Mark Henry, thank you, goodsir, thank you. Do you think
think Ramon. He gets tired whenpeople say Galveston County judge of thinking that

(07:04):
he's just the judge of the island. You think that would become tiresome.
Do you think he ever says,well, you know, we got all
this up here, and they're like, yeah, what's going on the beach.
We don't have a beach in TexasCity? We do? Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, you're right.Okay, good calling this other guy,

(07:25):
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