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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMaps in Four States Were Ruled Illegal Gerrymanders. They're Being Used Anyway.
NY TimesNo Paywall
But a shift in election law philosophy at the Supreme Court, combined with a new aggressiveness among Republicans who drew the maps, has upended that model for the elections in November. This time, all four states are using the rejected maps, and questions about their legality for future elections will be hashed out in court later.
The immediate upshot, election experts say, is that Republicans almost certainly will gain more seats in midterm elections at a time when Democrats already are struggling to maintain their bare majority.
David Wasserman, who follows congressional redistricting for the Cook Political Report, said that using rejected maps in the four states, which make up nearly 10 percent of the seats in the House, was likely to hand Republicans five to seven House seats that they otherwise would not have won.
Some election law scholars say they are troubled by the consequences in the long run.
Were seeing a revolution in courts willingness to allow elections to go forward under illegal or unconstitutional rules, Richard L. Hasen, a professor at the U.C.L.A. School of Law and the director of its Safeguarding Democracy Project, said in an interview. And thats creating a situation in which states are getting one free illegal election before they have to change their rules.
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riversedge
(70,468 posts)AmBlue
(3,133 posts)How is this allowed to stand? DNC? ACLU? Anybody?
Rebl2
(13,613 posts)havent these congressional maps been contested in these states? Did they draw them so late this year, there wasnt time to contest before primaries? I know the redrawn map in KS was contested, but the court said the way it was drawn was legal.
Deminpenn
(15,305 posts)those maps illegal 3 or 4 times.
the Supreme Court of OH should go after those in charge for not redrawing the maps again.
madinmaryland
(64,934 posts)the rejected map.
HariSeldon
(459 posts)The new House should refuse to seat all representatives from any state whose districts their own courts or federal courts have ruled illegal.
Deminpenn
(15,305 posts)that Dems are going to lose the House. Rs aren't the only ones doing partisan gerry-manders.
In It to Win It
(8,315 posts)I still think we can keep the House. It'll be hard but it's possible. Gas prices are under control (or getting there), jobs reports are strong, and the Dobbs ruling energized some parts of the electorate. I think it'll be difficult but I also think keeping the House is within reach, which I think we're in a much better position than we were a few months ago. I hopeful that it remains that way.
With regard to the gerrymanders, they aren't the only ones doing it but they are doing it more because they control more state legislatures. I won't underestimate that hurdle but I think keeping the House is within reach, despite that hurdle.
Deminpenn
(15,305 posts)And he is an experienced campaign strategist.
uponit7771
(90,371 posts)... at what point will hair on fire be the norm when it comes to voting?!
Lonestarblue
(10,176 posts)It will not help the 2022 election, but states need to be forced to draw fair districts before the 2024 election. The only way to do that is to outlaw gerrymandering. If that is the only piece of voting rights they can get passed now, then do it because we might not have the votes in the House after the 2022 election.
Gerrymandering is the single most effective tool that Republicans have used to gain and hold power, and the guarantee of safe Republican seats has just led to more and more extreme candidates like Greene, Boebert, Cawthorn, Gosar, and many others in this party of kooks.
uponit7771
(90,371 posts)LisaM
(27,863 posts)They wear out plenty of topics with no substance. Why not find a legit issue like this and spend some time on it, instead of picking lint off Biden's lapels all day?
ChoppinBroccoli
(3,786 posts)The Republican Party (or rather, the Republican-controlled redistricting committee--same thing) submitted gerrymandered maps that the Ohio Supreme Court found to be unconsitutional. So they just kept re-submitting the same maps, and the Supreme Court KEPT finding them unconstitutional. Eventually the time ran out and the Supreme Court just shrugged their shoulders and said, "Well, now we don't have TIME to put new maps in place, so I guess we'll just have to use these."
There should be some sort of sanction on the Republicans for continuing to submit the SAME unconstitutional maps over and over again until the clock runs out. At BEST, this is a sham legal process (which, if any attorney or private citizen kept filing the same lawsuit over and over after it had been dismissed, would result in "vexatious litigator" sanctions), and at worst, it's contempt of court.
How do these corrupt assholes just keep getting away with this shit? The reason why Ohio is now on the same level as all the wacko RW States like Alabama and Mississippi and Oklahoma is because the Republicans in Ohio have no fear whatsoever of losing their seats. This State has been so badly gerrymandered that they will NEVER be out of power. And there is nothing we can do about it. That's why when you see some whack-job abortion law that gets passed in Arkansas or wherever, Ohio is hot on their heels to pass one of their own. Ohio USED to be a reliably purple State. In just a few short years, it went down the Trump rabbit hole and has become a laughingstock.
In It to Win It
(8,315 posts)The federal district court instituted the gerrymandered map after the Ohio Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for something like the 5th time.
The Ohio Supreme Court ordered them to be redrawn but the federal court gave the state legislature a deadline to have a map in place. They had to comply with the federal court, and they ran out the clock to the point where they couldn't comply with both the Ohio Supreme Court and the federal court. In such a scenario of conflicting orders or deadlines, the federal court wins over the state court and federal court puts a map in place that the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. The legislature purposefully ran out the clock.
dwayneb
(773 posts)I'm not surprised at this at all.
The sad thing is that all of this was so easy to see coming, and we did very little stop it. Back during the Obama era there were plenty of legislative opportunities to turn the ship away from its collision course. But instead it was business as usual.
It wasn't until Trump ran for President that anyone seriously called the alarm. I can still recall Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" remark which at the time seemed pretty extreme to many. But now we understand that Clinton saw what was coming, and she knew well what the election of Trump would mean for the future of our democracy.
With Trump puppet Big Lie promoters going into governorships and secretaries of state all over the nation, and heavily gerry-mandered districts, we will soon be into a situation where it may be impossible for Democrats or Independents to ever win elections in many States. These Trump puppets can also potentially control the appointment of the electors in a Presidential. That's the end goal.
The Judicial branch was our last best hope, and now we see that it is corrupted not only at the SCOTUS level but at all levels.
We are in a war for our very existence as a free country and unfortunately I don't see that great mobilizing leader that we need in order to win it.
OldBaldy1701E
(5,221 posts)Is that we are waiting for a 'great leader' to save us. Typical that we want a Hollywood ending to reality. That just is not going to happen. So, we are still awaiting that savior when we all have the ability to win this. I guess that propaganda is working after all.
EnergizedLib
(1,907 posts)Can President Biden sign an executive order asking the Justice Department to get involved?
gab13by13
(21,513 posts)I believe New York's map was ruled illegal and Democrats in New York revised their map.
Republicans just kept using the rejected maps until it was too close to the election to change it.
budkin
(6,731 posts)They allowed this.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,574 posts)I don't know how we fix this shit at a national level without 60 Senators.