While it has been widely reported how the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling open the flood gates of money into politics through Super PACS and other means, what has been largely overlooked is the timing of the 2010 ruling.

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Gerrymandering

While it has been widely reported how the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling open the flood gates of money into politics through Super PACS and other means, what has been largely overlooked is the timing of the 2010 ruling.

As a result of the Citizen's United ruling, a significant number of state legislatures turned Republican in the 2010 election cycle. Much of this was the result of large amounts of money mainlined into state races by corporations and wealthy individuals.

In North Carolina, millionaire Art Pope spent over $2 million in state elections resulting in the Republican takeover of the North Carolina House & Senate for the first time in over 100 years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Pope).

Readers can read more about Art Pope in my Truthout article from 2012 at: (http://truth-out.org/news/item/6756-how-north-carolinas-shock-doctrine-artists-are-resegregating-higher-education) and at my 2014 article at Dailycensored at: (http://www.dailycensored.com/trickle-down-economics-the-rise-of-the-new-sociopathic-class/).

According to the Rasmussen report:

"Republicans now control the entire legislature in 25 states, 11 more than they had going in to the 2010 elections. ... The last time Republicans controlled this many legislatures was after the 1952 election, when they had 26.

The following 21 chambers moved to the Republican column:

Alabama House & Senate

Montana House

Colorado House

New Hampshire House & Senate

Indiana House

New York Senate

Iowa House

North Carolina House & Senate

Louisiana House

Ohio House

Maine House & Senate

Pennsylvania House

Michigan House

Wisconsin Assembly & Senate

Minnesota House & Senate

(http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_tim_storey/gop_makes_historic_state_legislative_gains_in_2010).

The significance of the Republican take-over of a majority of state legislatures in 2010 was that 2010 was a census year, and following the census Congressional districts were redrawn by state legislatures, with Republican controlled legislatures gerrymandering enough districts to provide them with an almost certain majority in the US House of Representatives until 2020, when the next redrawing of Congressional districts occur.

In North Carolina, after spending over $ 2 million to win Republican control of the legislature, right wing millionaire Art Pope served as pro bono legal counsel for the redrawing of North Carolina's electoral districts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Pope).

All of this should raise questions about whether the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision was deliberately timed to give the Republicans the ability to gerrymander Congressional districts following the census, and establish a "permanent" majority in the House of Representatives. It certainly seems that way.

Voter Suppression

In 2013, the Supreme Court overturned a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, paving the way for Texas and other states to enact voter ID laws. As the Washington Post reported:

"A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday invalidated a crucial component of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, ruling that Congress has not taken into account the nation's racial progress when singling out certain states for federal oversight.

Proponents of the law, which protects minority voting rights, called the ruling a death knell.

Just hours after the ruling, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said his state will move forward with a voter-identification law that had been stopped by a panel of federal judges and will carry out redistricting changes that had been mired in court battles (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-stops-use-of-key-part-of-voting-rights-act/2013/06/25/26888528-dda5-11e2-b197-f248b21f94c4_story.html).

In October 2014 The Supreme Court allowed Texas' Voter ID law to go forward in the 2014 election cycle. The Texas Voter ID law is regarded as one of the most stringent and draconian in the nation.

As the Washington Post reported:

"The Supreme Court's order that Texas can proceed with its strict voter-ID law in next month's election ended what is likely to be just the first round in a legal battle over election-law changes made by Republican-led legislatures around the country" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/2014/10/18/0439b116-5623-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html).

As Truth-Out reported on October 30^th, thousands of voters are now being turned away as a result of Texas' Voter ID law (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27137-voters-turned-away-because-of-texas-photo-id-law).

Republicans have alienated women, Latinos, African Americans and college students and are unable to win elections based upon demographics; so they fix elections. Vote suppression now appears to be an integral part of their election strategy. This includes a variety of tactics, such as Voter ID laws, voter ID laws which do not allow the use of College ID's, shortening early voting periods, moving voting polls off college campuses and voter role purges. All of this is accompanied by intimidation.

SUMMARY

Overwhelming evidence highly suggests that the Supreme Court may be intervening in elections and rigging the system in favor of Republicans. This includes deciding the 2000 presidential election in favor of George W Bush, the Citizens United ruling which enabled Republicans to take over state legislatures and gerrymander Congressional districts, and overturning part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which has enabled Texas to enact a Voter ID law which has disenfranchised thousands of voters in 2014.

There are also questions of whether the Supreme Court & GOP are engaged in a self-perpetuating cycle of misconduct: The Supreme Court appointed George W Bush president, Bush then appointed 2 conservative justices to the Supreme Court (Alito and Roberts) and the conservative majority then ruled on the Citizens United case allowing Republicans to gerrymander Congressional Districts and take over the House of Representatives (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/BushLegacy/story?id=6597342).

If this sounds like a 'velvet' coup d'etat, it is.

Authors Bio:

I am an author and investigative journalist who has written more than four hundred articles for Truthout, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Daily Censored, Project Censored and more. I received two awards from Project Censored, one in 2010 and one in 2012.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/08/24/obama-and-duncan-s-education-policy-like-bush-s-only-worse/

http://www.projectcensored.org/10-hr-347-would-make-many-forms-of-nonviolent-protest-illegal/

I am part of Truthout's "Public Intellectual" project.

I have written seven books on education, most recently:

Charter School Movement: History, Politics, Policies, Economics and Effectiveness

(http://books.google.com.ec/books/about/Charter_School_Movement.html?id=Fk8kAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y).

I have been a federally certified public interest attorney for more than 30 years.

I have been a tenant organizer and educational worker and organizer for 40 years.

I lived for one year in Nicaragua during the war, 1985,and worked for The Sandinista Ministry of Culture under Ernesto Cardinal.

I now live in Ecuador.