SCOTUS Upholds NC GOP Gerrymandering and Shifts Map Fairness Remedies to States and Congress June 27, 2019 Vol. XII, No. 7 11:13 am Time-honored right to partisan gerrymandering is upheld The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision split along partisan appointment lines, upheld the North Carolina Republican legislature’s partisan gerrymandered congressional maps in a
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SCOTUS Upholds NC GOP Gerrymandering and Shifts Map Fairness Remedies to States and Congress
June 27, 2019 Vol. XII, No. 7 11:13 am
Time-honored right to partisan gerrymandering is upheld
The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision split along partisan appointment lines, upheld the North Carolina Republican legislature’s partisan gerrymandered congressional maps in a ruling announced this morning in the Rucho v. Common Cause case. The decision, delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts, also concluded that under the US Constitution, any remedy to issues of partisan unfairness in mapmaking should be addressed by the states and the Congress, not the federal courts.
While acknowledging that “excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust,” Chief Justice Roberts stated that partisan gerrymandering claims “present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”
From now on, issues of partisan gerrymandering are for the states and the congress to decide.
Here are several highlights of the opinion:
“… the Constitution does not require proportional representation, and federal courts are neither equipped nor authorized to apportion political power as a matter of fairness.”
“This courts one-person, one-vote cases recognize that each person is entitled to an equal say in the election of representatives. It hardly follows from that principle that a person is entitled to have his political party achieve representation commensurate to its share of statewide support.”
“Vote dilution in the one-person, one-vote cases refers to the idea that each vote must carry equal weight. That requirement does not extend to political parties; it does not mean that each party must be influential in proportion to the number of its supporters.”
“… districting for some level of partisan advantage is not unconstitutional.”
Under today’s Rucho v. Common Cause ruling, the party that wins North Carolina’s legislative majorities in 2020 will still be able to enjoy the time-honored tradition of partisan gerrymandering.
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