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U.S. top court takes up Republican challenge to Maryland electoral district

Somerville

Somerville

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"U.S; top court" is the Supreme Court. This case has to do with partisan gerrymandering by one political party.

U.S. top court takes up Republican challenge to Maryland electoral district

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday added a second case to its docket on a contentious issue that could have major consequences for American elections, agreeing to decide whether Democratic lawmakers in Maryland unlawfully drew a congressional district in a way that would prevent a Republican candidate from winning.
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Notice that "second case" mention?
The court’s agreement to take up an appeal by Republican voters in Maryland regarding the U.S. House of Representatives district came two months after the justices heard arguments in a high-profile challenge by Democratic voters to Republican-drawn state legislative districts in Wisconsin.

Both cases target a practice known as partisan gerrymandering that aims to entrench one party in power and that critics have called a distortion of the democratic process. The justices have not yet issued a ruling in the Wisconsin case.

Each case presents a different legal theory as to why limits should be placed on partisan gerrymandering, and the court’s decision to take up a second case on the issue hints that at least some of the nine justices are seriously considering cracking down on it.
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There are two separate reasons behind the two cases: In Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled state legislature drew district lines to discriminate against minority party voters and that there was no other justification for the new district lines. The Maryland case, focused on a single district which, according to the complaint was created for no reason other than to eliminate a Republican seat.
 
In my opinion Maryland is the most gerrymandered state in the country (I live here), they legit created a district to delete a Republican from the House with changing the 6th district (we used to have 2 GOP members, now just 1 on the Eastern Shore). The past governor admitted to gerrymandering, and our current governor tried to fix it by passing a law that an independent 3rd party would draw the lines. However, the corrupt Democrats in the state legislature refused to pass a measure stating 5 other states would have to do the same before they would address the issue...

Maryland_Congressional_Map_2012.png


Districts are blatantly drawn to dilute out more GOP friendly areas and to wall off the Eastern Shore as the sole GOP House district. Shameful.
 
Somerville said:
"U.S; top court" is the Supreme Court. This case has to do with partisan gerrymandering by one political party.



Notice that "second case" mention?


There are two separate reasons behind the two cases: In Wisconsin, the Republican-controlled state legislature drew district lines to discriminate against minority party voters and that there was no other justification for the new district lines. The Maryland case, focused on a single district which, according to the complaint was created for no reason other than to eliminate a Republican seat.
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ALL gerrymandering needs to be outlawed. It's wrong - always has been, regardless of who's doing it. It effectively causes one set of people's votes count less than other sets of votes.
 
digsbe said:
In my opinion Maryland is the most gerrymandered state in the country (I live here), they legit created a district to delete a Republican from the House with changing the 6th district (we used to have 2 GOP members, now just 1 on the Eastern Shore). The past governor admitted to gerrymandering, and our current governor tried to fix it by passing a law that an independent 3rd party would draw the lines. However, the corrupt Democrats in the state legislature refused to pass a measure stating 5 other states would have to do the same before they would address the issue...

Maryland_Congressional_Map_2012.png


Districts are blatantly drawn to dilute out more GOP friendly areas and to wall off the Eastern Shore as the sole GOP House district. Shameful.
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Wisconsin is pretty bad. In 2012 Republicans got 60 of 99 assembly seats with 48.6% of the votes. 2014 63 of 99 (70%) with 52% of the votes. Not numbers that show a fair representation.

Edit - yes I still would call it unfair if these numbers benefited Democrats instead of Republicans. Just as fair is fair, unfair is unfair.
 
Which is why your "local representative" often really isn't. Our democracy is broken in so many ways and people refuse to think about fixing it.
 
exoplanet said:
Which is why your "local representative" often really isn't. Our democracy is broken in so many ways and people refuse to think about fixing it.
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We think about it a lot. Problem is that we're not actually the ones in charge. The people who benefit from gerrymandering are also the people who would have to cast votes to end it.
 
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