Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
By Michael Wines @ NYTimes.com, April 21
[....] a case heading to the Supreme Court [....] could transform political maps from City Hall to Congress — often to Democrats’ benefit.
A bipartisan group of voting rights advocates says the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature, the State Assembly, was gerrymandered by its Republican majority before the 2012 election — so artfully, in fact, that Democrats won a third fewer Assembly seats than Republicans despite prevailing in the popular vote. In November, in a 2-to-1 ruling, a panel of federal judges agreed.
Now the Wisconsin case is headed to a Supreme Court that has repeatedly said that extreme partisan gerrymanders are unconstitutional, but has never found a way to decide which ones cross the line.
Some legal scholars believe this could be the year that changes that. If that happens, they say, an emphatic ruling against partisan gerrymanders would rank with another redistricting decision: Baker v. Carr, the historic 1962 case that led to the principle of one person, one vote.
“My feeling is that there is increasing concern within the court about the extent of partisan gerrymandering over the last 10 or 15 years,” said Richard H. Pildes, a constitutional law professor at the New York University School of Law. “I do think this is a pivotal moment — a big, big moment.”[....]
Comments
i found this one interesting too
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/gerrymandering-illegal-mathematicians-can-prove
Especially this bit:
by Obey on Sat, 04/22/2017 - 6:08pm
Very interesting. Gerrymandering: it's complicated. I am impressed with the writer's skill at "science writing," translating for the challenged like me, going to watch for her byline.
by artappraiser on Sun, 04/23/2017 - 7:03pm
All that said, apparently gerrymandered districts are no guarantee of anything if you have a wild man at the top, especially in mid-terms where only the passionate vote. It's a brave new world:
interviews with more than a dozen top Republican operatives, donors and officials reveal a growing trepidation about how the initial days of the new political season are unfolding
by artappraiser on Mon, 04/24/2017 - 12:19pm
John Kasich unloads on 'horrific' gerrymandering
by artappraiser on Thu, 04/27/2017 - 7:25pm