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I am sure some analyses of the two Supreme Court decisions today will be framed as John Roberts strikes balance, liberal on Census, conservative on partisan gerrymandering. No. The Census issue is far from resolved; he can still allow citizenship Q down the road
Gerrymandering? Remember when Roberts said there are no Republican judges? He lied.He is a Republican partisan. A true representative system-- a republic-- only works if voters choose their representatives, not the other way around. He has endorsed a deep perversion of a republic
North Carolina's outrageous perversion of districts will become the norm.And the worst is likely yet to come. Roberts will soon outlaw non-partisan redistricting commissions for congressional elections-- signaled in his vigorous dissent in AZ case. Meaning even more distortions.
Parties can distort and voters in states w initiatives won't be able to respond. States w/o initiatives are screwed in any case. How does this fit with a republican form of democracy?
Republicans know that they cannot win elections in a fair fight, so they are systematically stacking the deck. As they stack the courts with pure partisans to let them get away with it. Including stripping minority voting rights protections. Roberts will bob and weave to try
to show that he is fair with "centrist" rulings here and there. Don't believe it. The Roberts Court is a partisan court, with five avidly partisan Republican judges. It is delegitimizing itself as a place where there is equal justice under the law
Don't forget Anthony Kennedy, who knowingly punted on cases that responded directly to his call for a standard for partisan gerrymandering, then retired to enable this to happen. After Vieth, I and many others worked for years to meet his criteria for standards. Bait and switch.
