Posted on 03/10/2022 6:32:42 AM PST by cotton1706
State lawmakers may soon have virtually unfettered power to draw congressional district lines. If this happens, it could undermine the democratic process and upend a century’s worth of case law.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Amazing how these people think. And how ignorant of history they are.
LEGISLATURES, that is, the people's representatives, have historically been the preeminent bodies in America.
But to those that have been made to believe that policy is properly made by courts, this is a foreign concept.
When the Dems control a legislature the Jerrymander is a good thing.
When the Repubs control a legislature the Jerrymander is an absolute threat to our Democracy is the logic of liberals.
If msn.com is whining about it, it must be a good thing.
Thing like the Voting Rights Act opened the door for judges to rule on these cases, but shouldn’t have. Yes, blacks should be able to vote without obstacles, but NO, districts should not have to be drawn with the sole purpose of assuring the election of blacks, or any other skin color.
Translation: Dems won’t get everything they want.
Nothing is ever settled until it is settled the way the Left wants it settled, and then it is settled. The only way to avoid this is to get rid of the Left.
Nailed it.
Alito WAS on the anti-Constitutional side? WTH?
Tell that to those of us in PA who had the State Supreme Court have the last say and agreed with Dems in the changed redistricting map.
Heads, the Communists win. Tails, the Constitutionalists lose. Great system.
He suddenly realized that Communists don’t have a supreme court. No need.
The right of state legislatures to redefine congressional districts is sacrosanct as defined by the Constitution. The founders intended for whatever prejudices exist in state legislatures to dictate congressional boundaries. Courts have no authority over redistricting.
We can eliminate gerrymandering by ....well...... gerrymandering.
That has to posilutey and absitively without any chance of comeback, ever.
“..State lawmakers may soon have virtually unfettered power to draw congressional district lines...”
States control state and national elections according to the Constitution - it is there in black and white - loud and clear!!!
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
The very corrupt, alleged election-stealing, Democratic-pirated Congress aside, if I understand the concerns correctly, state lawmakers cannot have unfettered power to draw congressional district lines. This is for the simple reason that post-Civil War federal lawmakers not only drafted Section 2 of the 14th Amendment (14A) as a penalty to discourage renegade states from weakening the voting power of voter-qualified citizens in any way, but also gave Congress the express power to enforce section 2.
"14th Amendment, Section 2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced [emphasis added] in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
Section 2: Apportionment of Representatives
"Section 5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
Note that after giving federal elections laws a quick review, sadly, controversies concerning election-related constitutional clauses, like Section 2 of 14A, is where at least part of the cold war aspect of the Civil War is still being fought imo.
Regarding the ongoing, post-Civil War "cold war" evidently still being fought by the very corrupt, constitutionally undefined political parties imo, please consider the following. The excerpt from "Single-member district" below seems to be an example of the bonafide use of Congress's 14A power to make laws that discourage renegade states from "abridging in any way" the voting power of ordinary qualified citizen voters.
Astonishingly, as if past generations of Democrats never got the message about the vote-rigging penalty Section 2 of 14A, Republican federal lawmakers made the indicated law in 1967. Republicans recognized the potential for rigging (my word) voting district maps as a backdoor for weakening voting power, and used their 14A power to mandate single-member House districts to help prevent Democrats from diluting the electoral power of African Americans with strategically drawn, multi-member districts.
"On Dec 14, 1967, single-member House districts were mandated by law (2 U.S. Code §2c), under the justification that they served as bulwarks against southern Democrats diluting the electoral power of African Americans by using strategically drawn at-large multi-member districts (they could, for instance, create a single statewide multi-member district elected by plurality vote, all but guaranteeing the white majority would elect all Democrats)." —Single-member district
Corrections, insights welcome.
The following example links are for when anybody has some time.
Draft:Uniform Congressional District Act (scroll down)
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