╌>

Democrats in Virginia win at Supreme Court in racial gerrymandering case

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  tessylo  •  5 years ago  •  7 comments

Democrats in Virginia win at Supreme Court in racial gerrymandering case

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T




U.S.

Democrats in Virginia win at Supreme Court in racial gerrymandering case



787713f0-b2d8-11e8-b66a-1195683ed67a_c4f   DEVIN DWYER, ABC News   Mon, Jun 17 12:34 PM EDT  








b2b35496b7bc7540c252bd1369f7da6a







Democrats in Virginia win at Supreme Court in racial gerrymandering case   originally appeared on   abcnews.go.com

A narrowly-divided Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal from Virginia’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates which sought to reinstate the state’s legislative districts map after it was struck down for improper   racial   gerrymandering .

A lower court held that 11 state legislative districts represented unconstitutional racial   gerrymanders . The state attorney general, a Democrat, declined to challenge the lower court decision.

On Monday,   in a 5-4 decision,   the court said the House of Delegates lacked standing to bring the case.

“The House, as a single chamber of a bicameral legislature, has no standing to appeal the invalidation of the redistricting plan separately from the state of which it is a part,” wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the majority.

“This is likely good news for the Democratic Party in Virginia – it means that the Republican-drawn map at issue in this case cannot be used in the 2019 Virginia state elections,” said ABC News legal analyst Kate Shaw.

(MORE: Supreme Court strikes down key part of Voting Rights Act)

Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam said the ruling means the state’s new electoral map, drawn by a court-appointed overseer, will stand.

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for democracy and voting rights in our Commonwealth,” said Governor Ralph Northam. “When we corrected racially gerrymandered districts earlier this year, we righted a wrong—as I have always said, voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.”

The decision also impacts the electoral landscape in Virginia, a key swing state, on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.

All seats in the Virginia legislature are on the ballot in November. The outcome will determine party control of the state chambers headed into the 2020 census and next redistricting – the chance to reshape Assembly and congressional maps for a decade.

Virginia has been ranked as one of the most gerrymandered states in the country with districts drawn in many cases specifically to minimize the electoral influence of black Democratic voters, according to the nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

Last year, a lower court sided with the challengers to Virginia’s map, ruling that the state assembly failed to conduct a “holistic analysis” of racial considerations unique to each district. It ordered that a new map be drawn before the 2019 elections.

Defenders of the map insist race did not predominate other race-neutral considerations.

(MORE: Supreme Court to decide fate of cross-shaped WWI memorial in Maryland)

The high court’s ruling features an atypical vote alignment, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch joining Ginsburg in the majority, while Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh dissent.

“The Virginia House of Delegates exists for a purpose: to represent and serve the interests of the people of the Commonwealth,” Alito wrote in the dissent. “The invalidation of the House’s redistricting plan and its replacement with a court-ordered map would cause the House to suffer a ‘concrete’ injury” and give it grounds for bringing an appeal.




Tags

jrDiscussion - desc
[]
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Tessylo    5 years ago

A narrowly-divided Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal from Virginia’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates which sought to reinstate the state’s legislative districts map after it was struck down for improper   racial   gerrymandering .

A lower court held that 11 state legislative districts represented unconstitutional racial   gerrymanders . The state attorney general, a Democrat, declined to challenge the lower court decision.

On Monday,   in a 5-4 decision,   the court said the House of Delegates lacked standing to bring the case.

“The House, as a single chamber of a bicameral legislature, has no standing to appeal the invalidation of the redistricting plan separately from the state of which it is a part,” wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the majority.

“This is likely good news for the Democratic Party in Virginia – it means that the Republican-drawn map at issue in this case cannot be used in the 2019 Virginia state elections,” said ABC News legal analyst Kate Shaw.

(MORE: Supreme Court strikes down key part of Voting Rights Act)

Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam said the ruling means the state’s new electoral map, drawn by a court-appointed overseer, will stand.

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for democracy and voting rights in our Commonwealth,” said Governor Ralph Northam. “When we corrected racially gerrymandered districts earlier this year, we righted a wrong—as I have always said, voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.”

 
 
 
evilone
Professor Guide
2  evilone    5 years ago

When will all parties realize gerrymandering isn't sound policy and set up a fair and impartial mapping system using an algorithm? I say this as a voter in a GoP gerrymandered district.

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
3  Dismayed Patriot    5 years ago

Right now, with all the extreme Republican gerrymandering, they only hold a razor thin majority even in what used to be deep Red States. With their primary tool for disenfranchising poor and minority voters being taken away I believe the stage is set for a massive wake up call as Republicans lose their grip on power almost over night and lose in landslide elections for the next decade after Trump has micturated all over what used to be the Grand Old Party. After Trump loses in 2020 few will want to be associated with such a piss soaked loser.

 
 
 
evilone
Professor Guide
3.1  evilone  replied to  Dismayed Patriot @3    5 years ago

Interesting assessment. I can't say I disagree too much. Between voter ID, voter roll culling and gerrymandering what's left to shave?

 
 
 
Dismayed Patriot
Professor Quiet
3.1.1  Dismayed Patriot  replied to  evilone @3.1    5 years ago
Between voter ID, voter roll culling and gerrymandering what's left to shave?

Well we can certainly do without the aid the GOP got from the pig fornicator Putin. Their only hope is for Putin to be even more aggressive and actually manipulate the vote totals instead of just running a multi-million dollar media campaign blitz, illegally hacking private US citizen emails and releasing them publicly in an attempt to embarrass Republican opponents like he did last time.

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
5  MrFrost    5 years ago

Cheat to win and win to cheat... 

Pretty sad that the GOP will literally go to court to preserve their right to cheat. 

 
 

Who is online

Ronin2
TOM PA
GregTx


76 visitors