Posted on 04/29/2003 2:56:28 PM PDT by Dubya
WASHINGTON -The Supreme Court grappled Tuesday with the issues of politics, race and elections in a case that will decide what states must do to protect minority voting rights.
The justices are considering how states can redraw election districts that previously had dense minority populations without violating a federal voting law. States and local governments must draw boundaries every 10 years if needed to reflect population changes
The high court's decision, expected before July, will affect states that are subject to the 1965 Voting Rights Act because of past discrimination.
Georgia's attorney urged the court to permit some flexibility in line drawing.
"Politics should be open and integrated," said David Walbert, pointing to what he called progress in that state that "no one would have dreamed of in 1965."
Many black leaders supported a contested plan to reduce the number of minority voters in several heavily black Senate districts, because shifting some minority voters to neighboring districts would help Democrats beat Republicans.
A lower court rejected those boundaries under the Voting Rights Act. Congress must decide in 2007 whether to renew part of the law which justices are interpreting in this case.
"Maybe if we make it bad enough, they'll think about repealing it," Justice Antonin Scalia said to laughter in the court.
The case came before the court as the state was embroiled in a dispute over displaying a Confederate symbol on its flag. Voters last year defeated the Democratic governor who orchestrated a change in the 1956 state flag to reduce the size of a Confederate emblem hat had dominated the old design.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, who became the state's first GOP governor in 130 years in part because he promised a vote on the flag, had tried to stop justices from hearing the redistricting case.
The politics of the case are unusual. The Bush administration, along with Perdue, contend that the Democratic-controlled Legislature went too far in reducing minority voting strength in those heavily black districts. The Voting Rights Act discourages dilution of minority voting strength.
Malcolm Stewart, arguing for the Bush administration, said that the state could not dramatically alter districts, making it tougher for minority candidates to win. He said the federal government objected to Georgia's plan because of a history of racial polarization in several districts.
Several justices commented on the politics involved. Scalia said that it made sense that blacks would want to spread around minority voters to avoid a "lilly white district ... so they won't get some redneck discriminatory" representative.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy questioned what a state was to do if it were "frozen" with districts with large black populations.
Redistricting often leads to court fights. Georgia's line-drawing also was disputed after the 1990 census in a case that prompted a 1995 Supreme Court ruling that race cannot be the predominant factor in the drawing of district lines.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg inquired about an earlier court fight between the new Georgia governor, Perdue, and state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a black Democrat. Perdue sued and lost in an effort to get Baker to drop his efforts to restore the contested districting plan. Baker is appealing the federal district court ruling that rejected the contested plan.
The case is Georgia v. Ashcroft, 02-182.
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Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
Gee, and then all representatives in NY would be the choice of the people of NYC.
The idea is not so much that geography is more important than demographics, but rather that it's less-easily manipulated.
Suppose that there are to be ten districts in a state which is 60% Republican, but I'm an evil nasty Democrat and I get to draw them.
If I am not bound by geography, I can make seven districts each 57% Democrat and 43% Republica, and the remaining three districts 0%% Democrat and 100% Republican. Net result: I have a veto-proof majority in the state legislature even though the Republicans have a substantial majority of the population.
All depends how accurate my information is, and how finely I decide to draw the districts [is there anything that requires different apartments within a building to fall in one district? I don't think so!]
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