Instead of establishing doctrine to protect voters from extreme partisan gerrymandering, in its June 18thdecision in Gill v Whitford the US Supreme Court has left the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering open, much as it did in 2004 (LSE U.S. Politics Blog)
How the Supreme Court made gerrymandering worse
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on something unanimously this week: The justices want nothing to do with solving the nation’s extreme partisan gerrymandering crisis.
What’s gone unsaid, however, is how the court itself helped create this mess — and why their latest dodge seems likely to make it even worse (at New York Daily News, with David Daley).
Supreme Court Ignores Science, Enables Voter Purging, But Data May Have Final Say
The Supreme Court, in a narrow 5-4 decision, has upheld a restrictive Ohio election law that initiates a process to purge eligible voters from its voter list if they fail to vote in a single election. A number of other states and localities have also implemented voter list purging tactics, and it is expected that this decision will result in additional states adopting more restrictive voter list purges (at The Equation).
Did My Tea Leaves Reveal the Supreme Court’s Upcoming Gerrymandering Ruling?
This morning, I stirred my green tea vigorously to see if it would reveal the Supreme Court’s opinion on two partisan gerrymandering cases that are soon to be released. The tea spilled, I scalded my lap, then wondered why any Decent American Patriot would sip tea while the nation awaits a decision of such historic significance (at The Equation).
Testimony Reveals the Real Controversy over Census Data and Voting Rights
On Friday, May 18, the acting head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division repeatedly refused to answer questions about his role in the Justice Department’s December 2017 request to the Department of Commerce to add a new citizenship question to the Decennial Census (at The Equation)
How Would a Flawed 2020 Census Affect You? I Talked with Someone Who Knows
Not to be outdone by other Secretaries who are gaining a lot more public attention, on March 26, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said “Hold my beer…” then announced that he was going along with Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ request to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census. The decision was announced despite concerns about the threat of a population undercount voiced by previous Census directors, the scientific and voting rights communities, and leaders in the public and private sectors (at The Equation).
Proposed Legislation Would Prevent Census Tampering
In anticipation of this week’s announced plans for the Commerce Department to add a citizenship question to the regular form on the 2020 Census, a group of legislators have proposed a bill designed to protect the scientific integrity of the Census from late additions (at The Equation).
