Yakima Now Waiting After Voting To Support Texas Case

The Yakima City Council Wednesday voted to file a legal brief with the US Supreme Court that supports a voting rights case out of Texas that could impact the Yakima case. On Tuesday the court agreed to hear a case out of Texas that deals with how voting districts are determined. The city appealed the federal judges decision for redistricting several months ago, hoping to see if the Supreme Court would pick up a similar case in Texas.  And on Tuesday city officials were surprised like Mayor Micah Cawley. "There was a little bit of surprise, I mean they don't pick up very many cases, especially voting rights cases, so the fact that they wanted to hear this case tells us they are probably looking into some things that they may want to change.”  Wednesday the city council met behind closed doors for nearly an hour and when they returned they made the decision to send the legal brief to support the Texas case.
If the supreme court sides with those challenging redistricting in Texas, it could affect the newly redrawn voting districts in Yakima. Even going as far as dismissing Yakima's case. The council Wednesday voted against asking for a partial stay of the current election system until after the court rules in the Texas case. The court will hear the Texas voting rights case this coming fall, but until then it's a waiting game for Yakima. The election, with all seven city council seats up for re-election, will proceed under the current changes to the system.