Tag: gerrymandering

Supreme Court Ruling Fails to End Gerrymandering

House DFL logoRep. Klevorn Proposes People-focused, People-Driven Redistricting Reforms

SAINT PAUL — Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in two landmark redistricting cases, Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek. In a 72-page decision written by Justice Roberts, the majority concluded it could not set a constitutional standard against partisan gerrymandering.

Justice Kagan highlighted in her dissent, “The partisan gerrymanders here debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people.”

Representative Ginny Klevorn (DFL-Plymouth) chief authored legislation during the 2019 session that would establish a nonpartisan Redistricting Advisory Commission comprised of 12 members of the public and five retired judges. Representative Klevorn released the following statement:

“Minnesotans deserve an honest election process, one that allows the people an opportunity to fairly elect their local elected officials. I wholeheartedly agree with Justice Kagan’s dissent. Although the Court came to this decision today, the Minnesota Legislature can set clear standards that put people before partisan or special interests. I’ll continue to work on people-focused and people-driven redistricting reforms putting all Minnesotans ahead of party, incumbency, and special interests.”

A Case for Math, Not ‘Gobbledygook,’ in Judging Partisan Voting Maps

The following article by Adam Liptak was posted on the New York Times website January 15, 2018:

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that statistical evidence said to show that Wisconsin’s voting districts had been warped by political gerrymandering struck him as “sociological gobbledygook.” Credit T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In October, when the Supreme Court heard argumentsin a case that could reshape American politics, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. registered an objection. There was math in the case, he said, and it was complicated.

“It may be simply my educational background,” the chief justice said, presumably referring to his Harvard degrees in history and law. But he said that statistical evidence said to show that Wisconsin’s voting districts had been warped by political gerrymandering struck him as “sociological gobbledygook.”

Last week, Judge James A. Wynn Jr. came to the defense of math. “It makes no sense for courts to close their eyes to new scientific or statistical methods,” he wrote in a decision striking down North Carolina’s congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

Judge Wynn directed his criticism to Republican state lawmakers, who had urged his three-judge Federal District Court to ignore what they called “a smorgasbord of alleged ‘social science’ theories,” and not to Chief Justice Roberts. But Judge Wynn did use one of Chief Justice Roberts’s most prominent opinions to make the point that numbers can have a role to play in judicial decision making. Continue reading “A Case for Math, Not ‘Gobbledygook,’ in Judging Partisan Voting Maps”

Distorted Districts, Distorted Laws

The following article by Billy Corriher and Liz Kennedy was posted on the Center for American Progress website September 19, 2017:

States must redraw their election districts every 10 years, based on the U.S. census, in order to account for changes in population.1 In most states, legislatures are responsible for redrawing the maps.2 State legislators can manipulate district boundaries to benefit their political party, either by cramming the other party’s voters into as few districts as possible or by thinly spreading the other party’s voters among districts where they are outnumbered.3 This manipulation, called gerrymandering, weakens voters’ ability to affect election outcomes. Technological advances have meant that states with gerrymandered districts have maps that are even more skewed than ever before.4 Recent polling shows that the vast majority of Americans—of both political parties—oppose partisan gerrymandering.5 Continue reading “Distorted Districts, Distorted Laws”

Schwarzenegger joins McCain, Kasich in calling for Supreme Court to end gerrymandering

The following article by Seema Mehta was posted on the Los Angeles Times website September 6, 2017:

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is among about three dozen prominent Republicans who filed friend-of-the-court briefs in a closely watched gerrymandering lawsuit that is scheduled to be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court next month.

Breaking ranks with GOP leadership, Schwarzenegger joined with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole and other present and former elected officials on Tuesday to argue that redistricting — the drawing of legislative and congressional district lines — in a way that favors any political party is unconstitutional. Continue reading “Schwarzenegger joins McCain, Kasich in calling for Supreme Court to end gerrymandering”

Stacking the Political Deck

NOTE: This is why the next state election is critical. The party in power in the state legislature will control how district borders are redrawn. Get involved either with your state legislators’ campaigns or with us and help undo what’s been done in the last redistricting.

Redistricting set the GOP up for electoral success and Democrats are fighting back.

The following article by Joseph P. Williams was posted on the U.S. News website July 14, 2017:

Credit: Eric Gay/AP

For the Republican Party, the 2010 midterm elections have been a gift that keeps on giving.

Besides sending Democrats into the political wilderness, the electoral surge that swept Republicans to the House majority also gave them control of the lion’s share of state legislatures, just as the decennial redrawing of local voting districts was set to begin. Sensing a once-in-a-generation opportunity, GOP officials executed a detailed, swing-state plan to carve out safe legislative districts for themselves, accusations of gerrymandering (and allegations of racism) be damned.

They’ve held the House majority ever since.

Continue reading “Stacking the Political Deck”