This is the most important case before the SC in a very long time. Gerrymandering is so obviously a form of cheating and should be made illegal.
Why do we even bother with the hearings and pretending thereās going to be any justice here?
Just skip to the announcement late next spring that-- spoiler alert-- it comes to a 5-4 decision in favor of the Republicans.
The Supreme Court is a farce.
This is almost certainly the most important case the court will consider this year. It goes to the heart of democracy, and democracy isāor should beāthe heart of the nation.
Gerrymandering and Citizens United are like two fat ladies singing as the curtain falls on the democratic opera called America.
The court is not really a farce. We hear about the cases where the court is divided on what seem to be partisan lines, but in most cases, thatās not so. And there have been times in the pastāand there will be again in the futureāwhen justices have grown from their experiences and broken new ground Harry Blackmun, appointed by Nixon, wrote the majority decision in Roe v. Wade. Souter, appointed by Bush I, became a pretty reliable āprogressiveā justice.
Not if the justices act as they should.
Itās been a long time since that happened. I wouldnāt hold your breath. 
Case in point: Citizens United. To name just oneā¦
Might as well get in a preemptive āFuck you Anthony Kennedyā while I can.
If the justices acted as they should we would not have Burwell v Hobby Lobby, Citizens United v FEC and Bush v Gore. Some justices do change over time and the Court may eventually correct bad decisions, but that is a slow process that leaves a lot of damage in its wake.
I wish I had your confidence, but with apologies, it seems like almost every ābig-ticketā decision since Bush v. Gore has come down to a 5-4 decision in favor of the Republican stance.
Thatās why upholding Obamacare was such a big deal, simply because it was an aberration.
If Justice was truly being served blindly, we wouldnāt be able to predict the outcomes of almost every single major case, and they wouldnāt end up consistently split on partisan lines.
āYou paint a very dire picture,ā Justice Samuel Alito replied dryly. He seemed unpersuaded.
Alito doesnāt get out of his bubble very much, does he. Perhaps he thinks that overwhelming stench wafting over America isnāt the giant shitstorm weāve descended into but due to the fact that his head is planted firmly in his own assā¦
I donāt know if you know this, but Blackmun wrote Roe v Wade because the major backers of the abortion change were Catholic and feared excommunication. As a result, Blackmun wrote the decision and everybody signed on. I wonder what would happen now, in this political climate, if Roberts and Alito would āeverā do that?
The problem with Burwell for me is that Hobby Lobby WAS paying for 3 or 4 methods of birth control for their employees, they just believed the IUD was an abortifacient (that was what āIā was taught in parochial schools in the 60s) and they were complicit in abortion. It turns out the medical information shows that IUDs are NOT abortion-producing in any cases. I can sympathize with them, BUT (and there is always the big BUT) not with the court for ruling that EVEN IF THEY ARE WRONG they still can run their health care for their employees based on a wrong belief.
Blew my mind.
The discussion in the article really misses the key issue, is a rose by any other name still a rose?
The redistricting maps in Wisconsin, also North Carolina, Texas and Florida reduce the voting power of minorities especially Blacks. Clearly this is racial discrimination. The argument on the other side is because it was not intended to harm Blacks because they are Black but rather because they are Democrats and therefore it is not racial discrimination.
My own view is that racial discrimination or opposition to is why many support the party they support. Another words, calling a rose a dollar bill will not buy your groceries in a reality based world.
No doubt. Plessey v. Ferguson was eventually followed by Brown v. Bd. of Education, but it took 60 years.
Chief Justice John Roberts worried about involving the Supreme Court in a glut of partisan redistricting claims that would follow if the Wisconsin Democrats prevail.
āWeāll have to decide in every case whether the Democrats win or the Republicans win,ā Roberts said, a scenario that he said would damage the courtās credibility.
Bitch is afraid of having to work as hard as the Warren Court.
Chief Justice John Roberts worried about involving the Supreme Court in a glut of partisan redistricting claims that would follow if the Wisconsin Democrats prevail.
Roberts is worrying about the wrong thing.
The conservative justices frequently note that courts should not do the jobs that legislatures are supposed to do, and that the remedy for legislative behavior that is harmful or undesirable, but not unconstitutional, is the ballot box.
GOP legislatures all over the country have been diminishing the power of the ballot box to effect change, but Roberts is afraid to do anything, because it is too hard to objectively determine the line of acceptable partisanship in each redistricting case.
May I suggest, Chief Justice, that you focus your attention on this line: the point at which highly partisan redistricting has locked enough state legislatures and Congressional delegations under the control of one party that the Constitution can be amended against the desires of a strong majority of voters.
We could be at that point in just a few election cycles if nothing alters the trend of recent years.
Shorter Roberts: You already know how weāre going to vote, donāt make us go on record EVERY time.
āWeāll have to decide in every case whether the Democrats win or the Republicans win,ā Roberts said, a scenario that he said would damage the courtās credibility.
With all due respect, Mr. Chief Justice, the question is whether or not you can decide that the Republican Party has given itself an unfair advantage with gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics. Please keep your eye on the ball, Mr. āUmpire.ā