The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Republicans in North Carolina unlawfully took race into consideration when drawing congressional district boundaries, concentrating black voters in an improper bid to diminish their statewide political clout.
The justices upheld a lower court's February 2016 ruling that threw out two majority-black U.S. House of Representatives districts because Republican lawmakers improperly used race as a factor when redrawing the legislative map after the 2010 census.
The decision came in one of a number of lawsuits accusing Republicans of taking steps at the state level to disenfranchise black and other minority voters who tend to back Democratic candidates.
The justices found that the manner in which the North Carolina voting district boundaries were sketched violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The ruling may offer a roadmap for challenging similarly drawn districts nationwide.
Apparently this was such blatant racism that even Clarence Thomas voted to uphold the earlier ruling. I know, right?
Neil Gorsuch had not been seated yet so he did not participate.
This ruling is bad news for the Republicans who have determined that they can win local elections by segregating the state and keeping those nasty Democrats from getting folks elected who actually represent their politics.
I know, it gives me a case of the sads too.
Never fear, wingnuts have a never ending bag of tricks for minority voter suppression. Most will be found to be unconstitutional but that part can be covered up when the constitution is used as wingnuts intended-as ass wipe.
ReplyDeleteWingnuts. Loed love 'em because their Mothers don't.
May 25, 2017 - 08:59 AM EDT
ReplyDeleteTrump and Pence hit new lows in Fox poll
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335083-poll-trump-and-pence-approval-ratings-drop-to-historic-lows
Nice to see Pence being dragged down too.
DeleteNo wonder he started his own pack and has made it a point to avoid further being linked to Trump. It's like Pence is invisible and mute.
So, will it take mass numbers of similar lawsuits to stop the POS R's from cheating countrywide?
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans will just keep at it until they win. Worked for to keep G.W. in office TWICE. While things are tied up in courts, they're people are in Congress dismantling our nation. So what if they lose? The damage is already done.
ReplyDeleteJust look at our present 45 and his minions. Even if he's impeached, we still have all of his expanded swamp to deal with. And his executive orders won't automatically and instantly be null and void either.
The Feds should just take this one over and place a grid over the entire country. Sure, it won't make sense geographically in a lot of places, but it seems like the only fair way to address this problem and do away with all attempts at cheating. The good news is that eventually, no matter how squigly the Republicans draw their lines, there will be so many Dems that they can no longer draw away their influence. Demographically, the Republican leaning Silent Generation and Baby Boomers (my generation) are slowly but surely being replace by the Millennials and Generation Z, my children's generations. Interestingly, voting habits do seem to be strongly affected by who is in office at the time that a person turns 18. So 8 years of 0bama will produce a boatload of Democratic voters. Also, if a president has an unsuccessful presidency, such as a Nixon or a Carter, the graduates vote for the other party. So Trump is going to do nothing but create a generation of Democrats! The key is getting the young people to vote, and from what I've seen, Trump is so bad that even the carefree youngsters are now becoming politically active. Perhaps in the end, Trump will be the "best thing" that could have happened for the planet. I certainly hope so.
ReplyDeleteAlaska needs to get Randy Ruedrich and Torgerson out of the redistricting process that continually results in blatant gerrymandering.
ReplyDeleteSome people on the internet predict the next justice Drumpf appoints to the Court will be Ted Nugent. Dont laugh. We've never had an aging rock guitarist on the court before (tho Justice Learned Hand reportedly played a mean ukulele) so maybe it's time we did.
ReplyDeleteSome might find it controversial to have a justice with zero legal experience - besides possible traffic court as a defendant - but it's likely Drumpf would make the case to his base that Justice Nugent will permit Justice Thomas or Justice Alito to cast Nugent's vote for him and no citizen who voted for Drumpf will likely object to that.