Associate Justice Elana Kagan
On Thursday morning, the supreme court voted 5–4 to withdraw from questions of partisan gerrymandering, with the court’s five most conservative justices in the majority. The ruling effectively gives states the ultimate power to decide on the legality of voting maps, and leaves in place extreme cases of partisan redistricting in states such as Maryland and North Carolina.
In a powerful dissent, an edited extract of which appears below, Justice Elena Kagan, together with the courts’ three other more liberal justices – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonya Sotomayor – claimed the court has abdicated its duty to protect the US constitution and American democracy.
‘Partisan gerrymanders have debased and dishonored our democracy’
For the first time ever, this court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities.
And not just any constitutional violation. The partisan gerrymanders in these cases deprived citizens of the most fundamental of their constitutional […]
The wonderful supreme court that gave us Dred Scott (ruling black people aren’t citizens), Plessy v. Ferguson (allowing separate-but-equal), Buck v. Bell (permitting compulsory sterilization), and Korematsu v. United States (upholding Japanese internment camps). Now you can add the politicians can make your vote not count by gerrymandering. America, what democracy?
Forgot one, Bush v. Gore …
If that’s how the game is going to be rigged, let the Dems play it better than anyone. Let’s gerrymander in the name of justice…and new justices!
There is also a problem with delegates and superdelegates who do not often allow the voice of the people to be heard. I think delegates should be banned, to form a more perfect democracy.