Gerrymandering: Now even more racist

[marmar]

On Edit: Fixed broken link


(Salon) Republican control over redistricting in key Southern states, along with Supreme Court decisions that gutted protections for voters of color, could result in historically unfair congressional maps after the next round of gerrymandering, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School.

The redistricting that followed the 2010 census resulted in "some of the most gerrymandered and racially discriminatory maps" in history but the next cycle of redistricting could be even more fraught with abuse in Southern states, according to the report. Florida, Texas and North Carolina, all of which are expected to gain House seats following the 2020 census, as well as Georgia, pose the highest risk of producing maps that are racially discriminatory and favor Republicans.

The report cited a confluence of factors for the growing risk. The next round of redistricting will be the first since the Supreme Court in 2013 gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required states with a history of racial discrimination to receive advance clearance from the Justice Department before making any electoral changes. The court's conservative majority later ruled in 2019 that federal courts had no jurisdiction to review partisan gerrymanders, which have been "heavily accomplished by discriminating against communities of color," said Michael Li, the author of the report and senior counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program.

Single-party Republican control over the map-drawing process and rapidly changing demographics, coupled with the weakened protections, are likely to result in even more "unfair" maps in those states than the last round. "Invariably, communities of color would bear much of the brunt, facing outright discrimination in some places and being used as a convenient tool for achieving unfair partisan advantage in others," the report said. .......(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/19/new-round-of-gop-gerrymandering-in-southern-states-could-be-the-most-racist-yet

[flying_wahini]

1. The words Single party control jumped out at me.

I live in Texas and see first hand how gerrymandering the maps shuts
out most all neighborhoods of color.

Until we change the maps Texas will never go blue.

( And your link isn’t working....)

[marmar]

2. Thx. Fixed.

[awesomerwb1]

3. Crap

So we could lose the senate AND the House in 2022?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. SCOTUS was 'gerrymandered' into SCROTUS

We can't rely on the judiciary. Marc Elias can't do it all. We'll have to register and also get apathetic voters aroused, as Stacey Abrams showed us.