The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that state lawmakers may draw new maps of congressional districts anytime they want, rather than just once a decade as the Constitution requires and has been standard practice. As a result, expect state legislatures to redraw the maps whenever they think it might benefit the majority party, as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay orchestrated in Texas.
Rather than having politicians in charge of redistricting, which results in crazy quilt districts aimed a protecting incumbents, more states should follow the lead of Iowa, which has a legislative service bureau draw its map.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/22
- Phantom on Health care reform would save state money
- Monkeyhawk on Minority status in Senate; majority approval at home
- Phantom on Health care reform would save state money
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/22
- Phantom on Health care reform would save state money
- writerdog on Minority status in Senate; majority approval at home
- Monkeyhawk on Open thread 11/22
- CapnAmerica on ACORN stole election?
- DavidB on Health care reform would save state money
17 Comments
It should be mandated that only citizens are counted for purposes of redistricting.
Another way to say it would have been: DeLay Proven Right.Damn. Be pretty tough to write that, huh?
I guess one district needs to be redrawn.
I’m not for sure, I would have to look into this, but I believe that states with many congressional representatives has to have a racial representative in partical districts.
Just curious! Just wondering what would happen if a white person gets elected in a prodomentally black district? It shouldn’t matter, but I believe it might be taken to court.
I see Justice Scalia cracked the whip and quickly got Roberts and the other neocon flacks into line on this one.
Is this a last ditch attempt to save GOP control of the House and Senate? “expect state legislatures to redraw the maps whenever they think it might benefit the majority party”. I bet as soon as that decision came down districts started getting furiously redrawn!
This is a classic case of politicians manipulating the public soley for the politicians benefit and gain. We , the public, gain nothing!
“We , the public, gain nothing!”
Which would be different from…?
“We, the public, gain nothing!”
I have to argue this point – I think we the public to gain something – an enormous mistrust of politicians and the political system currently in use.
Julie- You’re right. The really incidious(SIC?) thing is that this may drive more voters away because they feel their vote does not count! That’s partially true, sad to say.
of course I’m right!you doubted? ;-)(teeheehee)
Hey, I’m a 3 day week guy stuck in a 5 day week world!
As I read the above, especially from JR, I gotta say that’s a lot of assumptions for a group I doubt seriously has READ the 132 page opinions, nor probably even the syllabus.
Let’s see in a week, after you all have read the decision, and it’s precedent, and digested it, if you feel the same. I’d point out here, however, that while certainly the Republicans were flexing their majority to protect encumbancy, they were doing no more than Democrats had been doing for years, and doing what happens in EVERY state. Even the court recognized that.
Note, from the syllabus: “Appellants’ test would leave untouched the 1991 Texas redistricting, which entrenched a party on the verge of minority status, while striking down the 2003 redistricting plan, which resulted in the majority Republican Party capturing a larger share of the seats. A test that treats these two similarly effective power plays in such different ways does not have the reliability appellants ascribe to it.” Syllabus, p. 7 of slip opinion.
The short (and very quick/dirty) analysis: Does the constitution prevent the political branches, charged by the constitution with redistricting, from making political decisions? No.
Shocking.
DeLay still proven right :-)
I hate legalese. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Why can’t the law be written in something that somewhat resembles English?
RD,Lawyers need jobs just like the rest of us!
With this latest Supreme Court ruling legalizing gerrymandering, it’s more important now than ever to be careful of whom we elect, and to watch them carefully. Remember all those politicians who ran on term-limits who are now in their 6th or 7th term? They need to be retired as promised!We need representatives that actually represent their constituency, and will vote for a fair districting system similar to Iowa’s.
GMC70: Have you read the Supreme Court’s ruling? Do you actually know what’s going on here? I admit I don’t know and have a lot of questions.
1) Does this apply only to Congressional districts? In Kansas, we have four districts but rumor is we will lose one district after the next 10 year census because of slow growth of our state population compared to other states.
2) Does this also apply to our state legislative districts? Here in Kansas, we have 40 state senatorial districts and 125 house legislative districts. This would be a madhouse if these can also be redrawn at any time.
3) Again thinking about our four Kansas congressional districts, three of our four congressional districts each get a metropolitan area: Johnson/Wyandotte counties and vicinity, Topeka and vicinity, and Sedgwick County and vicinity.Jerry Moran has the remainder of the state and must travel a lot to cover it. I understand he does an excellent job of doing this.
So, how could this be changed short of giving Jerry Moran’s district some portion of each of the three metropolitan areas — which probably would not be an improvement.
Jerry Moran is actually from out around Hays, Kansas. My impression is he is very knowledgable about Kansas agricultural issues. So other than having to travel a lot throughout Kansas, he does represent the giant agricultural areas of Kansas.
BOTTOM-LINE: Better leave our Kansas congressional districts alone until the next ten year census in 2010.
I agree with you JWink.
But let me give you a senerio.
Since it is left up to the states to redistrict and they can redistrict anytime, lets say the Democrats sweep power in Texas or any other state. Wouldn’t it be ok for them to redraw the districts to get a better advantage and gain more seats in the next election? Let’s keep doing this for each election cycle and soon, the entire Congress and Legislature would be Democrat. Wouldn’t that be perfect?
Joe W.: According to Phil Brownlee’s lead-in paragraph, the state of Iowa lets a “legislative service bureau,” whatever that is, actually draw up political districts. I suspect it is a bi-partisan committee that is supposed to avoid politics in drawing up the districts!!
Here in Kansas, we have an interesting situation. In the district that includes heavily Republican Johnson County, their Congressman is Dennis Moore, a very popular DEMOCRAT. Part of his popularity is because he was Johnson County’s prosecuting attorney at one time. But he is a genuinely friendly person.
The interesting thing is Congressman Dennis Moore must have been raised here in Wichita because his father was or is an attorney here. However, I have never heard much about Dennis’s roots in Wichita such as where he went to high school, etc.
Also I’m hoping someone will let us know if this new re-districting ruling applies to state legislatures also.