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We could lose big time next week

GOP Could Lock in House Control for a Generation if SCOTUS Ends Key VRA Protection, Report Warns

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will rehear a case whose outcome would effectively end one of the last remaining protections against racially discriminatory voting maps. At stake is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the federal law’s central safeguard against racial gerrymanders...

...“Republican lawmakers could eliminate both minority opportunity districts while drawing a map that locks in Republican control,” the report adds. “The single minority opportunity district in Mississippi could be eliminated if Section 2 is struck down – eradicating Black voters’ ability to elect any candidate of their choice to Congress in the Blackest state in America.”...

U.S. Capitol Police officers stand post behind the temporary anti-scaling fence surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court, on Tuesday, June 28, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has put on hold a lower court ruling that Louisiana must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections to increase Black voting power. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will rehear a case whose outcome would effectively end one of the last remaining protections against racially discriminatory voting maps. At stake is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the federal law’s central safeguard against racial gerrymanders.

“Combined with Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymandering, a ruling gutting Section 2 could help secure an additional 27 safe Republican U.S. House seats, at least 19 directly tied to the loss of Section 2,” the report explains. “It’s enough to cement one-party control of the U.S. House for at least a generation.”

...Along with the GOP’s aggressive mid-decade redistricting in red states, the report concludes that “a decision to strike down Section 2 could essentially take America back to pre-1965, when there were no effective protections against racially discriminatory voting maps.”

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/gop-co...

This would be redundant. iirc, a few years ago, the court held that, while racial gerrymanders are illegal, political gerrymanders are perfectly fine. Since MAGA wants to eliminate all political opposition, the green light for political gerrymanders is far more useful than racial gerrymanders.

From the Google net sifter:

In a landmark 2019 decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that federal courts have no authority to hear challenges to partisan gerrymandering. The ruling, in Rucho v. Common Cause, effectively prohibits federal courts from striking down maps drawn to give an unfair advantage to one political party.

Steve

Not redundant yet...

AI
Rucho v. Common Cause 2019 shifted the responsibility for addressing partisan gerrymandering to state courts, state legislatures, and Congress, suggesting these bodies were the proper forums for reform...

Consequences and continued litigation

~State-level challenges: Following the decision, voters and advocacy groups shifted their focus to state constitutions and state courts. Since 2021, state courts in several states, including Alaska, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, and Ohio, have struck down district maps for being unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders.

~~Encouraging gerrymandering: Critics of the ruling argued that it emboldened lawmakers to draw more aggressive and partisan maps, diminishing fair representation. Common Cause noted that several states that had been major gerrymandering offenders in 2010 became even more extreme in the 2020 redistricting cycle.

~Race and party intersection: The ruling also created a loophole concerning racial gerrymandering, which remains illegal. Opponents noted that in racially polarized states, map-drawers could claim their intent was partisan rather than racial, a defense that has been deployed in court cases since the decision.

That last one, at some point partisan gerrymandering is the same thing as racial gerrymandering. It seems each state has to come up with standards for partisan gerrymandering.

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