:)
Posted on 09/07/2015 11:46:17 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
A little-noticed lawsuit brought by a Maryland man challenging the state's contorted congressional districts will be heard this fall by the Supreme Court — where it has the potential to open a new line of constitutional attack for opponents of gerrymandering.
Stephen M. Shapiro, a former federal worker from Bethesda, argues that the political map drawn by state Democrats after the 2010 census violated the First Amendment rights of Republicans by placing them in districts in which they were in the minority, marginalizing them based solely on their political views.
The issue before the Supreme Court is whether a lower court judge had the authority to dismiss the suit before it was heard by a three-judge panel. But Shapiro hopes the justices will also take an interest in his underlying claim.
Most redistricting court challenges are rooted in the 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law. If Shapiro's approach is endorsed by federal courts, supporters say, it could open a new approach to challenging partisan political maps.
"Once you open the window of this case, it presents a fascinating question of First Amendment law," said Jeremy D. Farris, an attorney representing the good-government group Common Cause. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Interesting case.
Of course, we know both parties do gerrymandering.
Ideally, congressional districts would be drawn so as to be as geographically compact as possible, regardless of which types of voters are inside the boundaries.
But, neither party draws the boundaries in this manner.
I think some states have non-partisan redistricting commissions which draw district lines. Having a non-partisan group, or even using computer technology to draw district lines so as to be equal in population and geographically compact, may be the best we can hope for.
However, nowadays, most republicans are white, and a large number of democrats are black. So, republican vs. democrat is now becoming black vs. white. So, if the Republican gerrymander to their advantage, it's racism. If democrats do it, everything is OK.
"Maryland is maybe the worst in terms of gerrymandered states," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that filed a brief supporting Shapiro's position. "It really is an outlier."
The word maybe is an understatement and I hope the SCOTUS makes the correct decision and allows for the lines to be redrawn.
A case from Houston that goes to SC is that districts are mad up of PEOPLE, but that means a city were illegals exist by 2-1 over suburbs ha an advantage in people but not voters. Since the congress in about one man one vote, should not the count be based upon eligible voters not body count?
We are going through this again in Florida. When the Republican controlled House and Senate were tasked with redistricting because of having added two new seats, they redistricted Alan West and Sandy Adams out of their seats. Two of the firebrand freshmen who did not take the establishments crap. But they essentially left alone the snake-like districts of Alcee Hastings and Corrine! Brown alone.
The Florida Supreme Court got involved and ordered the legislature to go over specifically her district again. The Two houses could not agree on a plan and now a mediation Judge will decide. The big problem is that yet another non-establishment Republican, Daniel Webster, looks to be redistricted out.
Then we have people on this site that believe Rubio is a possible attraction for the POTUS? He and his friends in the legislature lied to us from their hearts and they are doing it again.
“...I think some states have non-partisan redistricting commissions which draw district lines. Having a non-partisan group, or even using computer technology to draw district lines so as to be equal in population and geographically compact, may be the best we can hope for.”
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Good idea IN THEORY. However, in practice, it’s been my observation that these “non-partisan” commissions/groups always somehow end up dominated by ‘RATS & progressives and end up doing the ‘RATS work for them.
Surely you are delirious to hope that the SC would do something right. Yes, you are delirious, and don’t call you Shirley.
ping
Happy Free Enterprise Day!
No. Common Cause is a leftist group trying to masquerade as concerned citizens. They are barely cloaked bolsheviks.
Good.
A ballot initiative asked voters to approve the redistricting. It asked voters to vote for or against redistricting in accord with the laws of the state of Maryland. Nowhere did people see a picture of the map so, in ignorance of the actual situation for most people, it passed. Of course the Democrats encouraged people to vote for the initiative. Dems sure do know how to hide the real meaning behind their flowery words.
Maryland’s district map looks like they hung a piece of white paper on the wall, stood back 4 feet, inserted their finger in their throat, projectile vomited, let it dry then circled the splotches and called them Congressional districts.
I hope everyone is aware that the current run of GOP dominance in the House is due to packing D voters into a minority of districts.
The 2020 redistricting will be a big political fight.
We could see a rapid reversal of GOP control of the House after redistricting.
This isn’t being discussed much by conservatives, but it should be, because the only thing stopping the left from running completely wild — a GOP House with enough dissidents to block GOPe scheming on some issues — has it’s foundation built on sand.
The redistricting case that got Chris Bell to allege crimes against Tom DeLay was because Chris Bell lost his seat to a black Democrat in redistricting.
While the popular lie is that Republicans strictly give themselves more seats and deny minorities seats, that is just not so.
Chrissy Bell is running for Houston’s mayor’s office (again). He lost his race for mayor in the past, lost his congressional seat, lost his race for governor. He’s a 3 time loser and a professional politician who simply cannot thing of a job that isn’t in elected office.
It is absolutely ridiculous. The Commie Cummings district goes by City Hall of Baltimore, a lot of west Baltimore then up into part of Baltimore County’s rural areas like they have anything in common with Baltimore City’s slums.
In Houston they did that to limit the power of 2 disseparate groups of conservative engineers (north of Houston in Kingwood and south of Houston in Clear Lake).
City Council district E:
The next census will be conducted in 2020, and the next election with full redistricting in accordance with those data will occur in 2022. During that period the electorate will be increasingly divided be between Republican (or a Conservative Party) and Democrats along racial and urban lines. Whites are fleeing the Democrats and the Urban core. The Democrats have Blacks and are importing illegal immigrants to maintain their advantage in voter registration.
Blacks and these recent immigrants will be increasing compacted into urban cores. While these areas will invariably be controlled by Democrats, they will have such a large Democrat margin that Democrats will continue to lose ground in the rest of the country, rural, small towns, and suburban areas. The only solution for Democrats is for redistricting along the Maryland model. Radiate districts from the urban core to the surrounding rural and suburban zones, keeping Democrat majorities in each of them.
Compact districts not only allow us to choose a representative who will be influenced by their constituencies, but Conservatives, who are still in a majority in this country, will be more represented in the Congress.
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