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General News    H2'ed 10/3/17

Mayday October 3 at SCOTUS: Political Gerrymandering on Trial

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Equal districts under law!

Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!

Will Fisher, executive director of VoteVets, a Marine veteran who fought in Iraq, noted that he and his colleagues all swear to protect and defend the Constitution and hundreds of thousands have fought for these ideals.

The executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, John Yang, noted that the U.S. government does not advance the interests of Asian Americans or any other people of color and the existence of "safe districts" prevents discussion of the issues. Asian Americans live in "cracked" districts, he said.

Rep. Sheldon Neeley of the beleaguered district of Flint, Michigan said that gerrymandering is a "carnival image of the body politic." In his state, there are nine Republican and five Democratic U.S. representatives, with 27 GOP and 11 Democrats in the state legislature, even though numerically the GOP popular vote exceeded the Democrats by only 18,000 (figures I culled from the Detroit MetroTimes).

Rep. Alan Lowenthal of Oregon credited Arnold Schwarzenegger for leading the fight for an independent redistricting commission in California, putting it on the ballot in 2005. Oregon has independent redistricting. In Arizona, that state legislature sued against this category, but was overruled by SCOTUS. "Democracy is being ripped away from the people!"

Wylecia Wings Harris, CEO of the League of Women Voters (LWV), said that the meaning of gerrymandering is simple: "public policies don't represent the people." She singled out Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania for their "crazy" electoral districts (see the epitomal image at the top of this article, the second instance of gerrymandering in U.S. history, as an example). Gerrymandering has been deemed unconstitutional. The U.S. census will occur in 2020; districts must be drawn that represent us. Voters should select their representatives rather than the inverse

Democracy! Now!

Vice president of the CAP Action Fund Michele Jawando recalled that the newest SCOTUS Justice occupies a stolen seat, an issue that must be challenged in the future. As examples of the will of the people being thwarted, she specified the public's desire to continue Medicaid, up against government policies and, as far as gun reform is concerned, fully 90 percent of the people want background checks; the majority of people also want the minimum wage raised. The nine Justices have the opportunity to change those wrongs, she said.

Rep. Bill Foster from Illinois, a native of Wisconsin, said that the lead plaintiff, William Whitford, a retired professor of law at the University of Wisconsin is a friend of his father. As Congress's only PhD in physics, he said, SCOTUS "should do the right thing scientifically."

End gerrymandering!

Once the SCOTUS session ended, various speakers who had attended it addressed the protestors. Kirsten Clarke, head of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, quoted Justice Sotomayor as having asked what the value of gerrymandering is in this country.

Sachin Chheda, project director of the Fair Maps Coalition in Wisconsin, looked back to the origins of the case: five people got together in a tearoom in 2013 and from there the group grew substantially. He said that arguments from the other side, which included the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the Republican State Leadership Committee, were based on states' rights. At least the issue is out there on the table, he said.

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Marta Steele is an author/editor/blogger who has been writing for Opednews.com since 2006. She is also author of the 2012 book "Grassroots, Geeks, Pros, and Pols: The Election Integrity Movement's Nonstop Battle to Win Back the People's Vote, (more...)
 

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