Dr. Robin Armstrong - Galveston County Commissioner Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, Well, the line's been drug. Now what we have
to do is we have to have a federal court
way in on whether or not it is constitutional. I
don't think there's a lot of Republicans who are worried
about that aspect of it. But you know, I should
ask a few like doctor Robin Armstrong, Galveston County commissioner.
He's a Republican, he's a Texas GOP big wig. What
do you think Are you the least big concerned of

(00:22):
what the federal Court's going to do?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
No, I'm not concerned about it, Jimmy. I think we're
going to be in good shape. And the reason is
because we had a recent case in August to twenty
twenty four deciding is at the federal Fifth Circuit level,
and so it has reached constitutional muster. We've had some
skirmishes up at the Supreme Court level and we've won
them all. That's Galveston County and fighting this case, and

(00:48):
so I think we're going to be in good shape.
I think we have good standing. The problem is that
for forty to fifty years, the Democrats have been using
Section two of the Voting Rights at tocly Jerry Mander districts,
and they found that unconstitutional. In office of twenty twenty four,
we have politically reach Jerry Manager in them now and

(01:09):
so that is perfectly constitutional and legal, and so I
think we're going to be in good shape.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Didn't we get a letter from the DOJ though in
July warning us absolutely at yeah, and in the letter
correct me if I'm wrong. We didn't letter. Didn't it
warn that four congressional districts were drawn at least in
twenty that's the twenty twenty one case. That's kind of
what I would assume that we're kind of basing this
on is back in twenty twenty one, we were told
that they were drawn on racial grounds and that that

(01:36):
couldn't be done. So now these are being done, as
you said, politically, and that it would without regard to race.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
That is absolutely the case, and back to Justice Department
actually threatened a lawsuit against Texas if we did not
redraw the lines because those lines are now those lines
that were drawn in twenty twenty one are impermissible because
they were racially Jerry and so basically what that means
is that at the time, under the Section two of

(02:05):
the Voting Rights Act, we were forced to actually draw
districts that were coalitioned. And so the recent supremim I mean,
the recent Fifth Circuit Court case said that we no
longer have to do that, and so that really the
law changed, and so that allowed us to do redistricting.
And so we are on solid legal footing, solid constitutional footing,

(02:26):
and I think that's going to play out and we're
going to see that over the next few weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
What do we know about these federal judges in El Paso?
When I think of Al Passo, I think of a
blue city. That doesn't necessarily mean that the bankup of
this federal court is blue. What do we know about
about these judges and their political leanings?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, for these federally, they have federal statute which requires
you to have three court judges. One of these judges
is actually from the federal Fifth Circuit that gave us
the favorable ruling. One of the judges the Ol Paso judge,
which was in the bomb Obama appointee, and then and
then the other judge is Jeff Brown, who is the

(03:04):
judge that heard the case initially that ruled against us
when the president was the other way. And so I
believe now Jeff Brown is a is a Trump appointee,
the other judge is a Reagan appointee, and then one
Obama appointee, and so I think that the judges should
be very fair in this and so we just have
to see they where they line up. I mean, I

(03:25):
believe that that since they have a judge that was
on the Federal fit Circuit that's on this panel, the
three judge panel, I think that that that he's going
to be able to bring some insight into this case
because he's seen it at the Federal fitth Circuit level
and ruled in our favor.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
All Right, any bets on how long we're gonna have
to wait for a ruling on this. You know, they've
been meeting.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
They're going to meet all day every day, even on
Saturdays because it's an expedited ruling, So they're going to
meet all day every day, and we should have a
decision probably in the next two to three weeks hopefully.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
All Right, Thank you, sir, as always good to talk
to you. I hope you're well. Doctor Robin Armstrong, Galveston
County Commissioner, is seven twenty seven