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New round of GOP gerrymandering in Southern states could be the most racist yet

Rogue Valley

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New round of GOP gerrymandering in Southern states could be the most racist yet

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2/18/21
Republican control over redistricting in key Southern states, along with Supreme Court decisions that gutted protections for voters of color, could result in historically unfair congressional maps after the next round of gerrymandering, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. The redistricting that followed the 2010 census resulted in "some of the most gerrymandered and racially discriminatory maps" in history but the next cycle of redistricting could be even more fraught with abuse in Southern states, according to the report. Florida, Texas and North Carolina, all of which are expected to gain House seats following the 2020 census, as well as Georgia, pose the highest risk of producing maps that are racially discriminatory and favor Republicans. The report cited a confluence of factors for the growing risk. The next round of redistricting will be the first since the Supreme Court in 2013 gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required states with a history of racial discrimination to receive advance clearance from the Justice Department before making any electoral changes. The court's conservative majority later ruled in 2019 that federal courts had no jurisdiction to review partisan gerrymanders, which have been "heavily accomplished by discriminating against communities of color," said Michael Li.

Single-party Republican control over the map-drawing process and rapidly changing demographics, coupled with the weakened protections, are likely to result in even more "unfair" maps in those states than the last round. "Invariably, communities of color would bear much of the brunt, facing outright discrimination in some places and being used as a convenient tool for achieving unfair partisan advantage in others," the report said. Li said that Southern Republicans often focus on race because "it's really hard to gerrymander" without "using communities of color." Under Chief Justice John Roberts, "there has been this sort of chipping away at voting rights, a lot of really frustrating decisions coming from the court," Marina Jenkins, director of litigation and policy at the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said in an interview. Republicans have worked for years to carve up states to benefit the party using extensive demographic research that typically sought to dilute the voting power of Black residents. The 2011 redistricting cycle allowed lawmakers to choose their own voters and allows the GOP to wield a disproportionate amount of power. The Supreme Court's ruling in the 2019 case overturned lower court decisions and effectively prohibited federal courts from weighing in on partisan gerrymanders, after those courts struck down several gerrymanders in 2016.


Ironically, the US Supreme Court has snuffed out the protection of voting rights at every opportunity. It allowed corporations to buy politicians with Citizens United v. FEC. It removed previous constraints on voter suppression tactics by Jim Crow southern states with Shelby County v. Holder. It allowed unfettered racial gerrymandering with Rucho v. Common Cause. Clearly, the Supreme Court under Justice Roberts has done everything possible to maim democracy in the United States.

Republicans have used SCOTUS rulings to unfairly carve up America by race via gerrymandering, and pass red-state legislation that suppresses and depresses the votes of people of color.

 
Part of the problem here is the progressives inability to think coherently on race.
On the one hand, the cited article frets about Republicans worrying about structuring redistricting based upon race.
And then on the other hand, the article frets that Republican redistricting would not allow redistricting based upon race.
 
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