The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for January 6, 2023
2023 Anti-Voter Predictions – Hyper-Partisan Courts Means More Gerrymandering on the Horizon
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
U.S. Supreme Court – 2019’s Rucho v. Common Cause Decision
New York Times – The Election Is Over. The Fight Over Voting Rules and Gerrymanders Isn’t.
Dallas Morning News – Razor-thin GOP majority in Congress rests on 4 ‘extra’ seats from Texas gerrymander
Washington Monthly – The Decline and Possible Resurrection of Radical Gerrymandering
Groups Taking Action:
League of Women Voters US, Redistricting Advocacy Organizations, Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, Fair Districts Ohio, Democracy North Carolina
Today’s Script: (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
We end our 2023 predictions with gerrymandering, and the court actions which may make it permanent in some states.
In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that state redistricting was an inherently political process and declined to get involved. To anti-voter state legislatures, this was a green light for gerrymandering, which engineered new partisan maps in North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin,New York, and many other states.
In Ohio, the state supreme court ruled state legislature and Congressional maps as unconstitutional, but its courageous chief justice is retiring, and a partisan replacement is expected in 2023. In Wisconsin, Democrats were 46% of the vote in the Midterms, but won only 33% of the state assembly because of extreme gerrymandering in 2021. An April 2023 election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court may determine whether gerrymandering is there to stay.
And finally to North Carolina and the Moore v. Harper case, where a decision is expected in early summer 2023. A gerrymandering case, it’s really about the ultimate power of legislatures over elections.
Our prediction for 2023: Even if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t buy into the fringe “independent state legislature” theory in Moore v. Harper, state and federal courts packed with Federalist Society judges will greenlight even more partisan and racial gerrymandering in the years to come.
We always have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.