Patricia Schroeder: “It was changed in 1976. They had 3- judge panels from 1948 to 1976, and in 1976, the House and Senate changed it at the…”

“It was changed in 1976. They had 3- judge panels from 1948 to 1976, and in 1976, the House and Senate changed it at the request of the courts. The courts today have written a letter, I am sure the gentleman from California [Mr. Bilbray] has seen it, begging us not to do this again because it is so onerous. It really impacts on all of their different dockets that they have got that are so backed up and it does not end up with any result. They still get a 3-court panel, because they get to appeal to the Court of Appeals. So they are saying, ``Wait a minute, wait a minute. This is very different.'' And the voting rights case only happened once a decade. That is a little bit unique. That is once a decade. And that is a very different type of case from this. There are 20 referendums a year.”