The south will fall again…
Of course the new map had to favor Democrats. The old map so favored Republicans that anything that balanced scales and undid the extreme gerrymandering that gave them that advantage in the first place would favor Democrats. Republicans think that their cheating is the only fair way to do things!
Ooh, that’s gonna leave a mark.
So what will the supremes do? If they hear arguments this spring, can the gang of five declare that racism is over in virginia soon enough to go back to the old district lines without interfering with the election? In cases going the other way, the deadline for changing district lines has been way early.
Dear Mr. Speaker: Tell it to the judge(s). More GOP victimhood. As always, IOKIYAAR applies.
Under republican control this time! Ok I know it’s the same racist that were in charge of democrats that just took over republicans. I always get a laugh out of current southern racist republicans that brag about Lincoln and republicans being the friend of black folks!
So we can count on Virginia to be reliably blue now? Oh happy day. This is excellent news.
If this is redistricting for just the Virginia House of Delegates (i.e. internal to the state), then the SCOTUS shouldn’t be inserting themselves into the process. It would be a state matter, relevant only to the state’s laws and constitution (though I am not a constitutional scholar, so take this with a grain of salt), and the SCOTUS wouldn’t have cause to modify or overrule the State Supreme Court’s eventual ruling.
That probably won’t stop the GOP from trying to petition the SCOTUS after they lose at the state level, but they should refuse to hear the case if they’re going to be on the level.
So does this affect the federal House districts as well? Would the current Virginia House map shift +6 for Dems if the predictions are correct?
Thank you for crystallizing my thoughts. They cannot stand to face the reality that they are actually a minority in this country and their dirty tricks of manipulation are finally being exposed and corrected.
Yes sir … Virginia just keeps getting more blue !!! The less populated areas are still mostly red but the heavily populated areas in Northern Virginia (D.C. suburbs) are certainly blue, and the growing areas around Richmond keep getting more blue.
In the 2018 election my Richmond area district got rid of that slime ball Republican Dave Brat (who had replaced Eric Cantor) and elected a female Democrat … former CIA officer Abigail Spanburger to the U.S. House of Representatives. Dave Brat was then hired by Liberty University as head of their business school … they deserve each other.
That would be nice, but this is a federal case and if a federal court ordered it, then other federal courts will sit in judgment on the appeal.
No.
Good to know, but even if it is in Federal court, the SC has no obligation to take it up, particularly if it concerns only state-level redistricting issues. Taking up this sort of state issue at the national level would help set a precedent where the SC could get drawn into adjudicating every state redistricting case in perpetuity and I think that Roberts likely would not prefer that to be part of his court’s legacy.
Marc Elias, an attorney who brought the redistricting lawsuit on behalf of a group of African-American voters, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
Because he was too busy saving the country.
The Supreme Court does not have to take it up, but the rest of your comment could equally apply to every federal court, and in general, we want federal courts to be available to correct state level abuses. Indeed, the reason why this is in federal court is because the state itself drew boundaries with a view towards maximizing Republican power, which includes the power to appoint members of the Virginia courts. In contrast, the redistricting litigation in Pennsylvania was squarely brought under the state’s own constitution, and THAT should be of only the most limited interest to federal courts, unless it directly violated a federal constitutional guarantee, such as equal protection. The position you are staking out is similar to what was used a generation ago to oppose federal intervention in school integration and other civil rights cases, including voting rights cases.
Elias deserves all kinds of credit. I had no idea until recently that he was behind many of these lawsuits.
This story should mention the fact that Republicans currently have a 51-49 advantage in the House of Delegates in spite of only getting 43% of the vote in 2017, compared to 53% for Democrats. In addition, one seat was decided by a recount in which a panel of Republican judges added a ballot to the count that had previously been rejected. The addition of this ballot created a tie, which was then decided “randomly” in favor of the Republican.
Without an adequate explanation of the prior state of gerrymandering if favor of Republicans, the article seems to imply that Democrats are the ones guilty of distorting democratic principles.
State legislatures are not allowed to ignore Federal laws when they draw districts. The violation of civil rights’ laws is why the Federal Courts got involved in this case in the first place. Without Federal intervention, Jim Crow laws would still be in place all over the South.