By now, you may know the story: The Ohio Supreme Court, with three Democrats and its Republican chief justice making up a majority, has rejected a proposed state legislative map drawn by the GOP-dominated redistricting commission.
All designed to get the decision that Alito and others have been begging for the opportunity to make, i.e., that state legislatures make the rules per the Federal Constitution and therefore not even the state Constitutions and state courts can say anything about it. It is, of course, a complete batshit end-run around actual federalism but they’re desperate and democracy is an existential threat to them so…
We live in a fascist non-democracy ALREADY, and it will only be getting WORSE from here on out.
I see no quit in the Ohio GQP. They will keep on sabotaging the process. They expect the Dems, the ACLU, the NRDC, etc. to give up like they did on the Congressional maps and let the GOP have their maps for 2022.
They are pinning their hopes on the retiring GOP chief justice being replaced by someone the GOP controls better. It’s a good bet.
Your one word answer:
No.
I guess there is the way I think and wish the law would operate when obvious mal-intent is present (such as in this case) and the only reason they will succeed is because the greasy hacks delayed enough to pass by some utter fucking horseshit deadline by a fucking bunch of horseshit partisan supreme court hacks to prevent a reasonable map being put in place.
And there is the way the law is expected and projected to ‘function’, regardless of my emotion. Alas.
I a SO SICK AND TIRED of the continual gaming of the system by Republicans. They don’t care about what’s right or fair or legal – they only care about WINNING. No matter how they have to do it.
No. It won’t matter. The GOP can defy the courts with impunity coz Chuck Todd says Republicans are “savvy.”
Those are the rules. I didn’t make them.
In the next 10-15 years (which will be a painful wait) Ohio will be flooded with those escaping the floods - in search for relief from higher cost of living, and environmental disaster (we are a Great Lakes state - fresh-er water and relatively less disaster). The demographic changes we will see are going to make these GQP enforced gerrymanders painful indeed to those who drew them up. Voters in the 3 big Cs (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati) and a few select other more educated population centers which will grow are going to demand all the services and actual freedoms they aren’t getting.
But does this matter to the graft-happy Ohio GQP legislature now? Of course not. They have to put their thumb on the scale more and more NOW. They have nothing to offer, and as long as they see a continuing short-term trendline of the state getting whiter, poorer, older and dumber, this to them is a winning move. I look forward to it blowing up in their faces, but for now, it’s an ugly process to witness indeed and SCOTUS and Capitol Hill will do nothing to stop it.
… … … … …
I know… why not just make sex… any sort of sex… illegal. That way DeSantis won’t hafta worry about all sorts of things. Not just abortion.
Only area where the Ohio Supreme Court dropped the ball is here:
Importantly, the court rejected challengers’ request that members of the commission be held in contempt for failing to draw a constitutional map.
Four non-compliant maps isn’t a coincidence, its a pattern. The Ohio GOP has de-facto refused to make a compliant map and refused to follow the court’s instructions. If this doesn’t justify holding them in contempt, then nothing does.
Making abortion illegal only hurts poor people. Those who can afford a 500 dollar plane ticket will get by just fine. It’s all posturing in the belief that those affected are the ones that don’t vote republican anyways.
Everyone knows 5 times is the charm…
Amen. Anyone who has actually worked at a women’s reproductive clinic knows it is about poor women, disproportionately poor women of color, who are trying to eke out some control of their lives. My wife assisted for years with pregnancy termination procedures and she will tell you there were very few woman wearing designer clothes in her classes. Abortion has never been illegal for rich people - just inconvenient sometimes.