Supreme Court approves South Carolina congressional map previously found to dilute Black voting power
Supreme Court approves South Carolina congressional map previously found to dilute Black voting power
The Supreme Court upheld a pro-Republican South Carolina congressional map Thursday, rejecting the argument raised by civil rights groups that lawmakers impermissibly used race as a proxy to bolster the GOP’s chances.
The Supreme Court upheld a pro-Republican South Carolina congressional map Thursday, rejecting the argument raised by civil rights groups that lawmakers impermissibly used race as a proxy to bolster the GOP’s chances.
But the high court also said that the civil rights groups that challenged the maps could continue to pursue one part of their claim, a move that will likely delay the battle over the districts for months.
With state election deadlines approaching, a federal court in March had already ruled that South Carolina could use the contested map in this year’s election.
The decision was 6-3 along conservative-liberal lines.
Gerrymandering is despicable, as are the conservative Justices that allow it. Look at this ridiculous map.
It designates one Democratic district and six Republican districts.
Current voter registration is 44.98% Democrat, and 44.62% Republican.
This is exactly how Republicans maintain their control in the House.
Even with the demotivation caused by gerrymandering, the 2020 only election broke about 5:4 in favor of Republicans. In the 2022 midterms, it was 2:1, but only 3:2 when you take out the two districts where the Republican was unopposed.
A huge part of America's problem right now comes from worshipping "Constitutional Democracy v2.0" when many other countries are running version 4 or 5.
First Past the Post, no ranked choice voting, an imbalanced legislature, an Electoral College based on the numbers from that legislature, and contemplating no constitutional role for parties, all that has ossified the political culture. You get parties locking in temporary gains and pushing advantages to the hilt because after all there's no parties in MUH CONSTITUTION. Even if we assume the remaining 9% of voters in SC are all embarrassed republicans, that's still 5:4, like the presidential numbers tend to break. In what fucking world should that result in a 6:1 ratio in the house delegation?
I get that maybe you have to consider letting some people be a bit overrepresented to get them to buy-in, that's at the heart of many federal systems, but the degree and the manner in the US has become full-on toxic.
I wonder to what extent this is driving polarisation. I've been thinking a lot recently about what it would take to be able to break bread with someone who was very right wing politically. I see a lot of right wing people who I have a lot of common ground with, if I recognise that the material conditions they're living under are making them desperate for an alternative. Ofc, I'm not keen on the fact that many of them believe that people like me (queer, leftists at universities) are to blame for those material conditions, but I like to imagine a world where we could work on the same team against the things that are actually to blame.
I think the gerrymandering in the US probably makes it so that each party has less reason to court voters of the other side. I can imagine what it must feel like to be a republican in a super blue state — even if you do vote, it won't matter, and then every choice the elected government makes would perpetuate this idea of the big bad "other". I wonder how much this affects things though, given that the polarisation is driven by many complex factors
The crux of this issue (and the Supreme Court identified this while more liberal leaning) is that it's really fucking hard to measure gerrymandering-ness this is a pretty rational question to ask (though we should be bopping obviously gerrymandered districts down in the meantime). There's no obvious natural way to divide a state into districts and while we do have measures we can use to highlight voter disenfranchisement I think it's arguable that the closest we can get to a natural district map isn't really optimized for enfranchisement either. We tend to want districts to compose entire regions (i.e. the Philadelphia metro area) even though those regions introduce disenfranchisement due to previous redlining and other racist policies.
This problem is pretty hard to solve in an unimpeachable manner.
The crux of this issue (and the Supreme Court identified this while more liberal leaning) is that it’s really fucking hard to measure gerrymandering-ness
Yup, for anyone who hasn't heard it, I'd highly recommend people listen to FiveThirtyEight's Gerrymandering Project. While this isn't to say that gerrymandering isn't a problem, it's not as simple as many people make it out to be. Especially with the high level of self-sorting which has been going on, packing lots of Democratic votes in a single district tends to happen, even without trying.
That’s true, but no matter the outcome, the total district representation should not deviate far from the state party distribution, as it does in this case.
Current voter registration is 44.98% Democrat, and 44.62% Republican.
I'm not sure where they're getting that information. SC does not have registration by party at all. It's literally not information that the state collects.
The website states they get their voter registration data from L2 Data.
Palmetto State voters don’t register by party, but L2 has you covered. Our party identification modeling in South Carolina is built from both primary ballot selections and academic modeling which has gone through extensive testing. As an early presidential primary state, voters in this state get a lot of attention.
Know who they are by utilizing the detailed demographic and issue data in L2’s enhanced file. L2 data is trusted by campaigns, consultants and political organizations throughout South Carolina, and we’ve built a reputation in the state as having the most up-to-date and cleanest file available.
USSC corrupt AF, get your asses to the polls this November or things will get even worse: Don't let them stack the court any more than they already have. There is no excuse to not vote, just fucking do it!
So, this isn't really relevant to your overall point, but generally it's appreciated SCOTUS, POTUS, etc.
Oh, thanks, actually. I was very confused trying to figure out what USSC was. My dumbass was thinking United States Soviet Commune lmao.
"United States... Space Corps?"
“In the electoral sphere especially, where ‘ugly patterns of pervasive racial discrimination’ have so long governed, we should demand better – of ourselves, of our political representatives, and most of all of this Court.”
- Justice Elena Kagan
Everyone knows this is the objectively wrong decision, the judges are just playing politics because they have the votes to do so. And as a result, we all suffer.
It's a GOOD THING the Judges, like Samuel Alito, have shown us they are IMPARTIAL and ONLY rules based on Law and Precendent and NOT the fact that they totally hate Democrats and ANYONE who identifies as one and Support by Definition Traitors Against America!
Prison labor = slave labor, black votes are systematically made worth less than white votes...this is starting to sound familiar.
Stuffing the Supreme Court was definitely the right step for a dictatorship.
Unfortunately, it looks like Americans learn nothing. Get ready for another 4-year round of Cheeto-dusted fun this November.
This crap needs to stop. Everyone anywhere in the country should be allowed to vote anything in a general election
Damn, and they did well on the last two voting cases, told Louisiana and Alabama to get bent. What's different here?
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1200906844/supreme-court-alabama-voting-case
They have more to gain with South Carolina. This gerrymandering shit is why Democrats may not get the house in November