Posted on 05/22/2017 10:11:56 AM PDT by NohSpinZone
You dont see a Kagan-Breyer-Ginsburg-Sotomayor-Thomas majority often in U.S. Supreme Court decisions, but today that quintet joined together to deal a blow to North Carolina Republicans. In the decision in Cooper v. Harris, the eight-member pre-Gorsuch roster upheld a district courts ruling that two congressional districts in North Carolina were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, putting an end to one part of a six-year saga that began with redistricting in 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Can someone show a pic of Mel Watt’s old district? Made him rich.
Most of the racial gerrymandering is done to elect Blacks and Latinos. How is this different?
Wow!
Could it be that this decision could put an end to the racial gerrymandering that guarantees the Congressional Black Caucus their seats for as long as they want them and as long as they avoid prosecution for their corruption?
Nah
I don’t know about the specifics of this case, but I don’t doubt that both parties do a bit of gerrymandering. I like to see it called out when it happens.
That said, I would think that this sort of thing would usually result in pretty unanimous decisions. I mean, real gerrymandering is usually pretty obvious once you shed light on it.
Most of the racial gerrymandering in the south was done at the insistence of federal courts.
Wow! Has anybody seen Louis Gutierrez’s district? Basically it gets as thin as half a block at some parts as it meanders in a horseshoe shape that tries to make sure that Hispanics add up to 60% of the district in a city that has no neighborhood large enough to create a safe Hispanic congressional district. Somebody needs to sue the state of Illinois to get rid of this thing and several other congressional districts in Illinois which are guaranteed to stop several communities from ever having a congressional representative.
Anyone who wants to see a great example of racial gerrymandering should look at the District which produces Illinois’ Luis Gutierrez.
Read the article and the ruling seemed to hang on precedent established by the “Gingles Test.” Did Thomas write the majority opinion? I’d like to hear is reasons if he didn’t.
The old Mel Watt district looked more like a ribbon connecting black areas of several North Carolina towns. The result, of course, produced one black incumbent and several Republican neighbor districts who went GOP now that the blacks had been cherry-picked out of it.
Such gerrymandering across the U.S. was part of the reason for the 1994 GOP sea-change in the House. It was the unintended consequence of the Democrats trying to insure minority voting districts and explains why the Democrat party has become more divisive and radicalized. Many older Dems who were moderates to hold onto moderate districts became dinosaurs after the gerrymandering.
Under the Gingles test, plaintiffs must show the existence of three preconditions:
The racial or language minority group “is sufficiently numerous and compact to form a majority in a single-member district”;
The minority group is “politically cohesive” (meaning its members tend to vote similarly); and
The “majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it ... usually to defeat the minority’s preferred candidate.”[19]:5051
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornburg_v._Gingles
Yes, that’s correct - to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
Sounds like that whack job Mo Henchey’s old CD in NY.It encompassed Poughkeepsie, then crossed the Hudson to include Kingston, New Paltz,aka Snowflake Central, and the artsy fartsy towns of Hurley and Woodstock. Then extended due west through the parts of the Sawangunks and Catsills, less than 1mile wide in some areas to include Binghamton and the NW corner of Tompkins Cty, 120 miles in length because Ithaca College and Conrnell U are there
Gerrymandered. No, couldn't possibly be.
Thomas getting senile?
This will end up cutting out lots of Democrats around the county mark my words.
Yeah he is - like a fox.
Generally, these gerrymandered districts are fixed so that minorities can have more representation. Because Whites are still 67% of the population, they will most likely vote for a White candidate over a minority candidate in primaries, thus cutting down the chances of minorities to surface in general elections.
It must have in some way favored the demographic designated for replacement/destruction (Caucasians).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.