On the contrary, I don’t think this shows anything at all about how they would vote on the merits of a gerrymandering case (I expect it would be along traditional liberal-conservative lines, but who knows). I’m glad the maps will stay so I’ll take it, but I really don’t like the decision. Any participant in a case should be able to continue to appeal it, and the frequent dismissals based on standing really bother me because they usually end up preventing any kind of justice. The constitutionality of any law should be able to be challenged even if no one is directly affected by it.
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Republicans currently hold a 51-96 majority in the chamber.
I think you meant 51-49.
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No, the Justices haven’t “tilted the 2019 elections in Democrats’ favor”. They have allowed a fair election to continue, because the current map is fair, not favoring either side. In a state with something like a 10% majority for Democrats, a map tilted to the Democrats would have almost no Republicans elected.
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I agree, they only ruled the way they did, due to standing.
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IT’s still a good ruling.
And the standing issue has the potential to stop other frivolous right-wing lawsuits.
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Yes, people shouldn’t let their imaginations go too wild here. The Supreme Court is an incredibly powerful institution. If it makes too many decisions that are too damaging to other institutions, it could find itself without any foundation supporting its own power.
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Weirdest 5-4 split I’ve ever seen or heard of. Naturally it was on a fairly technical issue, but nonetheless . . .
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I think it just means they all were rabbit-pathing on a technical issue where pedantry crushed ideology. Usually only see it in I.P. cases and rarely then because they tend not to take I.P. cases without a larger majority determined to smack down an uppity court of appeals that’s usually the Federal Circuit.
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“According to one analysis of the new map, six House of Delegates districts held by Republicans could be shifted towards Democrats. Republicans currently hold a 51-96 majority in the chamber.”
That should read “51-49 majority.”
Just a typo, but one that significantly distorts the impact this decision is likely to have on control of the chamber.
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I don’t think it will be a gerrymandering bazooka. I think it will be related to executive privilege and shielding Trump from the law, because pulling that thread could reveal many of the nasty things the GOP has been up to.
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Good thinking! But, I think this ruling doesn’t set that up.
From the related Prime analysis piece:
The GOP-controlled House of Delegates did not have standing to bring the case to the justice, Ginsburg wrote, citing a Virginia statute that gives the state’s attorney general — who had opted not to appeal a ruling that a 2011 map was a racial gerrymander — the exclusive authority to defend the state in civil litigation.
That seems like importantly different rationale than that cited in this article, which reads:
“One House of its bicameral legislature cannot alone continue the litigation against the will of its partners in the legislative process,” Ginsburg wrote, referring the state’s House of Delegates.
I think we’d have to read the full opinion to see how these separate statements engage with the problem.
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This practicing attorney agrees.
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The article should read 51-48 Republican majority, not 51-96.
This is not an indication of SCOTUS opposition to gerrymandering; it is decided on a technicality. I will be interested to read Ginsberg’s dissent.
I don’t know if Alito is a WASP wannabee. In Philly and Newark in the 60’s, the Italian enclaves became reactionary and racist counterpoints to increasingly African American inner city populations.
Alito’s dad was a NJ State Judge and he was Federalist Society at the Law School that spawned Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and himself. I dont think Frank Rizzo and Tony Imperiale followers in Philly and Newark suffered from the wannabe blonde and blue eyed complex portrayed in the 70s movie Bread and Chocolate. About an Italian migrant worker in Germany or Switzerland or some teutonic place.
5-4 on a technical ruling? Very strange line up of votes. Just weird all around. Better batten down the hatches, a storm’s a’comin’.
That was my first thought, too. I’m in my late seventies and up until a few years ago, I had some faith in the legal system and the Supreme Court (except for the Bush-Gore decision.) Of all the damage Trump has done and is still doing, I hate the politicization of the courts the most. He absolutely must go.
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It’s not Trump doing it. It’s Mitch McConnell. Trump is just content to receive plaudits for showing up at the last minute with a properly-shaped rubber stamp. Without McConnell’s commitment to the Koch network’s decades-old plan to corrupt the courts, Trump would be standing there twiddling his thumbs.
Actually, maybe he’d be in jail.
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the justices have likely tilted the 2019 elections in Democrats’ favor.
you mean untilted.
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