Polycarp
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Correct me if I am wrong but it appears to me that a state court in North Carolina put in the fix in order to fix the fix that was in.
A state court blocks North Carolina’s Republican-friendly map
The gerrymandering fix could help Democrats keep the House in 2020
WHEN THE Supreme Court decided in June that it was ill-suited to policing partisan gerrymandering, Chief Justice John Roberts wove in a faint silver lining for fans of democracy. Federal courts may not be cut out to decide when state legislatures go too far in drawing electoral lines to entrench one party in power, but state courts are another matter. “Provisions in state statutes and state constitutions can provide standards and guidance for state courts to apply”, the chief wrote in Rucho v Common Cause, pointing to the example of a 2015 Florida court decision nullifying its congressional map. Challenges to partisan gerrymandering need not, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “echo into a void”.
On October 28th, a state court in North Carolina inserted itself into the void. The same skewed congressional map that the justices declined to straighten out in accordance with the federal constitution four months ago is now effectively erased as a violation of North Carolina’s state constitution. Republican legislators who crafted the map to guarantee them 10 of North Carolina’s 13 seats in Congress—despite the state’s roughly 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats—will have no appeal beyond North Carolina’s highest court, where six of the seven justices are Democrats. The federal Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to review a state supreme court’s ruling on the meaning of its own state constitution.
Read the rest for yourselves you lazy bastages!
www.economist.com
A state court blocks North Carolina’s Republican-friendly map
The gerrymandering fix could help Democrats keep the House in 2020
WHEN THE Supreme Court decided in June that it was ill-suited to policing partisan gerrymandering, Chief Justice John Roberts wove in a faint silver lining for fans of democracy. Federal courts may not be cut out to decide when state legislatures go too far in drawing electoral lines to entrench one party in power, but state courts are another matter. “Provisions in state statutes and state constitutions can provide standards and guidance for state courts to apply”, the chief wrote in Rucho v Common Cause, pointing to the example of a 2015 Florida court decision nullifying its congressional map. Challenges to partisan gerrymandering need not, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “echo into a void”.
On October 28th, a state court in North Carolina inserted itself into the void. The same skewed congressional map that the justices declined to straighten out in accordance with the federal constitution four months ago is now effectively erased as a violation of North Carolina’s state constitution. Republican legislators who crafted the map to guarantee them 10 of North Carolina’s 13 seats in Congress—despite the state’s roughly 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats—will have no appeal beyond North Carolina’s highest court, where six of the seven justices are Democrats. The federal Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to review a state supreme court’s ruling on the meaning of its own state constitution.
Read the rest for yourselves you lazy bastages!
A state court blocks North Carolina’s Republican-friendly map
The gerrymandering fix could help Democrats keep the House in 2020
