SC strikes down NC gerrymander 5 - 3, Thomas joins liberal majority

[SoLongAtlas]

U.S. top court tosses Republican-drawn North Carolina voting districts https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-voters-idUSKBN18I1SG?il=0

Good. NC needs to get its head in the game and forget about all this good ol boy, antebellum push nonsense.

[Barnes]

What's interesting is that the entire Court decided that the districts were unfairly biased to some degree, with the majority (Kagan, Ginsburg, Bryer, Sotomayor, and Thomas) arguing for a racial bias, and the dissenting opinion (Alito, Roberts, and Kennedy) arguing for a more partisan bias.

[ApatheticAustrian]

if there is another thread in another board about this plz tell me


Supreme Court ruling wipes out Republican-drawn House districts in N.C.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/22/supreme-court-strikes-down-north-carolina-maps-congress/100855582/

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[Brittain33]

if there is another thread in another board about this plz tell me

I started this one in Congressional Elections, but it's not clear to me it belongs in one or the other:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=264808.0

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Great news!

[Barnes]

Yep, we've got a trifecta going on this with the topic here, one in Political Geography, and one in Congressional Elections.

[Mr. Smith]

Still weird that Kennedy is one of the hack votes and Thomas is one of the liberal majority votes.

[Torie]

This decision will have very limited impact. The map drawers thought they needed a 50% BVAP, to conform to the VRA, so they used race. That mistake will not happen again. You just instruct the map drawers to ignore race, and focus on voting patterns. If one does that, and the BVAP stays near 50%, one should be OK under this decision I would think. Prudence would dictate however, that the gerrymanderers make a conscious effort to find white Dems to put in a CD. Another protection would be to try to avoid chopping cites, particularly where the only Dems in the city to speak of are black.

So if the Pubs want to gerrymander in southeast Virginia, make darn sure that a black CD includes all the white Dem voter precincts in Richmond (a few precincts in that city so qualify). It would really look bad if black Dem precincts were chosen, when it could have been white Dem precincts as well to get the partisan gerrymander done.

The legally safest gerrymanders of all, are those that try whenever possible to chopping counties or subdivisions of counties. Typically gerrymanders can be effected without doing much extra chopping.

[KingSweden]

Still weird that Kennedy is one of the hack votes and Thomas is one of the liberal majority votes.

Thomas tends to have a liberal streak when it comes to racial gerrymandering

[KingSweden]

What's interesting is that the entire Court decided that the districts were unfairly biased to some degree, with the majority (Kagan, Ginsburg, Bryer, Sotomayor, and Thomas) arguing for a racial bias, and the dissenting opinion (Alito, Roberts, and Kennedy) arguing for a more partisan bias.

Any tea leaves on what that could tell us about the upcoming Wisconsin gerrymander case?

[Mr. Smith]

Weird that Kennedy wasn't on the majority side, somewhat surprising that Thomas was.

[Gass3268]

Weird that Kennedy wasn't on the majority side, somewhat surprising that Thomas was.

Thomas thinks that VRA districts are unconstitutional, so he kills them whenever he sees them.

[krazen1211]

Current voting patters make the newer, cleaner NC congressional map superior to the old, messier NC congressional map.

I suspect the old Torie 2011 spindle of PA-14 that appeared in the WSJ is no better than the actually drawn PA-14 that sits almost entirely in Allegheny County. At least by Trump numbers.


The next iteration of this will be if and when the state of Michigan places Detroit in its own Congressional district.

[jimrtex]

Still weird that Kennedy is one of the hack votes and Thomas is one of the liberal majority votes.

Thomas is opposed to the use of race in classifying voters, as a clear violation of the 15th Amendment. In his concurring opinion, he said that District 1 had used race; and that Section 2 of the VRA does not apply to redistricting.

The SCOTUS had previously upheld District 12, and Alito accused Kagan et al of treating it like a table napkin, to be discarded after use. This may have explained Kennedy sticking with previous decisions. Thomas had dissented in the previous NC case.

The liberals on the court appear to believe you have to use race, but make it appear like you are not.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Thomas is the most opposed to categorizations by race, so his support for the majority position is not surprising.

What's more surprising is that Bryer and Kennedy each seem to have reversed themselves from Easley v. Cromartie.

[Skill and Chance]

Still weird that Kennedy is one of the hack votes and Thomas is one of the liberal majority votes.

Thomas tends to have a liberal streak when it comes to racial gerrymandering

Justice Thomas is very internally consistent and can be so far right that he ends up agreeing with the left on certain issues for idiosyncratic literalist reasons or more often writing a sole concurrence in an 7/1 or 8/1 case.

His closest corollary on the left would be William O. Douglas.

[jimrtex]

Weird that Kennedy wasn't on the majority side, somewhat surprising that Thomas was.

Thomas thinks that VRA districts are unconstitutional, so he kills them whenever he sees them.

In his concurring opinion, he said that Section 2 of the VRA does not apply to redistricting.

Had Gorsuch participated it would be a 4:4:1 decision, with Thomas likely writing the majority opinion.

[Vern]

So does this mean the CD will change again?

[Torie]

Weird that Kennedy wasn't on the majority side, somewhat surprising that Thomas was.

Thomas thinks that VRA districts are unconstitutional, so he kills them whenever he sees them.

In his concurring opinion, he said that Section 2 of the VRA does not apply to redistricting.

Had Gorsuch participated it would be a 4:4:1 decision, with Thomas likely writing the majority opinion.

There would be no majority opinion, and apparently there is no majority opinion, just a majority result. I doubt Thomas would have voted the way he did, if the Pubs had just focused on voting behavior. Thomas' vote can be explained by the Pubs misunderstanding of Section 5. In that sense, the decision is a "one-off." This fact pattern will not appear again.

[Nyvin]

So does this mean the CD will change again?

No.

[jimrtex]

So does this mean the CD will change again?

What are all these NC redistricting cases?

The federal court whose decision the SCOTUS just confirmed had accepted the new (current) districts drawn by the legislature. The plaintiffs have appealed that decision to the SCOTUS.

There are also separate cases challenging the maps as partisan gerrymanders. They have not had trial.

There is another case appealing the NC Supreme Court decision which was opposite of that of the federal court.

[Nyvin]

Roy Cooper called a special session to redraw the maps

https://governor-new.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/documents/files/Extra%20Session%20of%20the%20NC%20General%20Assembly.pdf

This seems to be for the legislative districts, or is it calling for the congressional map to be redrawn as well?

[jimrtex]

Roy Cooper called a special session to redraw the maps

https://governor-new.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/documents/files/Extra%20Session%20of%20the%20NC%20General%20Assembly.pdf

This seems to be for the legislative districts, or is it calling for the congressional map to be redrawn as well?

The legislature meets one day after the call, with a maximum period of two weeks. Cooper may be angling for a failure so that he can decree a map.

[jimrtex]

Roy Cooper called a special session to redraw the maps

https://governor-new.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/documents/files/Extra%20Session%20of%20the%20NC%20General%20Assembly.pdf

This seems to be for the legislative districts, or is it calling for the congressional map to be redrawn as well?

The legislature cancelled the special session, determining that the governor's purported order was unconstitutional.

[Brittain33]

Roy Cooper called a special session to redraw the maps

https://governor-new.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/documents/files/Extra%20Session%20of%20the%20NC%20General%20Assembly.pdf

This seems to be for the legislative districts, or is it calling for the congressional map to be redrawn as well?

The legislature cancelled the special session, determining that the governor's purported order was unconstitutional.

I wonder if that will stand, given how many times the legislature has been smacked down by the state and federal courts for their poor understanding of constitutionality.