BREAKING: SCOTUS Sends Back North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case Rather Than Setting It for A
Source: Election Law Blog
The Supreme Court has vacated and remanded the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case, rather than setting it for argument. This is another sign Justice Kennedy is not ready to weigh back in so fast. I discussed what that remand order could mean at the end of my Slate piece on Gill.
But even with a remand the case could be back before the Supreme Court for the next term (even if that next term does not include Justice Kennedy).
If what North Carolina can do is kosher, then there really would be no limits on partisan gerrymandering. This is the case where the state explicitly admitted it was drawing lines solely for partisan advantage
Read more: http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99759
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Supreme Court just wrote a presumption of white racial innocence into the Constitution
Congratulations, guys! Racism is fixed!
IAN MILLHISER JUN 25, 2018, 11:30 AM
The Supreme Court held on Monday that white lawmakers enjoy a presumption of racial innocence, even when they draw legislative districts that empower white voters at the expense of racial minorities.
The thrust of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion in Abbott v. Perez is that the “good faith” of a “state legislature must be presumed,” even when there are very serious allegations of racial gerrymandering. The facts of Perez are unusual and unlikely to repeat in the future, but Alito’s presumption of white racial innocence could have a significant impact on future cases.
In 2011, Texas drew racially gerrymandered maps. At the time, the Supreme Court had not yet struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Thus, the 2011 maps could not take effect until after they were “precleared” by federal officials in Washington, D.C. A federal court in D.C. ultimately concluded that the maps were not legal.
That meant that, with the 2012 elections rapidly approaching, Texas did not have any valid maps that it could use in that election. Worse, though a Texas federal district court drew maps that the state could have used in the upcoming election, the Supreme Court vacated these maps. Thus, in late January of 2012, Texas still had no maps, and primary elections were only a few months away.
https://thinkprogress.org/scotus-presumption-of-white-racial-innocence-gerrymandering-7ad4fdfc82a5/
November 2018 cannot get here fast enough......................
