SCOTUS Gerrymandering Decision A “Gross Miscarriage of Justice”
“With this ruling, parties in power may now place entire jurisdictions under a stranglehold of minority rule by disenfranching the voters who disagree with them.”
“Today, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that partisan gerrymandering of political maps can not be challenged in federal courts. This decision is a gross miscarriage of justice that will inflict lasting damage to the American political process for years to come. Not only does this ruling uphold two wildly partisan Congressional districts in North Carolina and Maryland, it signals to parties currently in power across the country that they have free rein to draw their local, state, and federal districts as they so please, without any obligation to fairly and accurately reflect the will of their voters.
When politicians are allowed to choose their own voters, they artificially uplift the voice of their preferred constituents at the expense of legions of Americans. With this ruling, parties in power may now place entire jurisdictions under a stranglehold of minority rule by disenfranchising the voters who disagree with them – simply because Chief Justice John Roberts believes partisan gerrymandering is a “political question.”
The Supreme Court has long ruled, prior to today, that districts must have more-or-less equal population, and has rejected the idea that the party in power can arbitrarily change the district boundaries to immortalize that power. To turn around today and rule that politicians may disenfranchise whole blocs of the population by packing them into one district is an affront to equal protection under the law. That the Court has chosen to abdicate the responsibility to protect each and every citizen’s opportunity to participate in a fair, just democracy is a cowardly decision that, in the words of Justice Kagan’s dissent, “debased and dishonored our democracy.”
We at the Patriotic Millionaires stand firmly opposed to this decision.”
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