(CNN) — “The Supreme Court’s conservatives expressed doubt at oral arguments Wednesday that South Carolina GOP lawmakers engaged in impermissible racial gerrymandering when they redrew congressional lines for a House seat to benefit Republicans.
Several of the conservative justices on Wednesday suggested that map drawers had taken politics into consideration, not race.
Chief Justice John Roberts said those challenging the map had “no direct” evidence that race had predominated in the decisionmaking process.
Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly suggested that a lower court had made serious legal error in invalidating the map. Alito contended that there was “nothing suspicious” if a map drawer is aware of race as long as it is not a predominant factor when drawing lines.
After an eight-day trial featuring 42 witnesses and 652 exhibits, a three-judge district court panel in January held that District 1 amounted to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because race was the predominant factor in the district’s reapportionment plan.
“To achieve a target of 17% African American population,” the court said, “Charleston County was racially gerrymandered and over 30,000 African Americans were removed from their home district.” The court referred at one point to the “bleaching” of Black voters out of the Charleston County portion of the district.
Lawyers for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund told the justices in court papers that the state impermissibly used race as a predominant factor when drawing the district.
“Using race as the predominant means to sort voters is unconstitutional even if done for partisan goals,” they argued.”
So is this how the Conservative Justices on the Supreme are planning on arguing for gerrymandering? We were all stunned when the Conservative-leaning Court ruled against Alabama twice in the past few months for their gerrymandered districts. It seems as though Right Wing organizations have become enraged by those decisions and word of their grievances have gotten back to the Conservatives on the Supreme Court.
The new Republican policy appears to be calling the redistricting that disenfranchises black voters a political issue, not a race issue. Which should hold no weight at all because if race is used in any manner of “redistricting” it is illegal. But now that the GOP has a narrative they can feed their base. That gerrymandering is okay if it’s done for political reasons. Now they can pretend their motivation is political and not because they are racists. Then does that mean the pig with the bright pink lipstick on isn’t still a pig? Because that is essentially what they are saying. It doesn’t matter what motivates you if your actions are racist. If you call a Democrat the N-word because you disagree with their politics you’re still a racist.
The ruling the Supreme Court gave to Alabama must have sent shockwaves throughout Republican circles because that has become the Party’s only hope to win seats in Congress. For that illegal loophole to be shut off by a Supreme Court with a Conservative majority. Must have been unacceptable to the major donors that supply all the unreported “gifts” that the Right Wing Justices can’t live without.
The Anti-Alabama gerrymandering ruling was just too good to be true I guess. It was the first major decision that gave the country hope that the top court could make a ruling based on legal precedent. Not the partisan judgments that have become standard practice for this court. Leading to the nation having the lowest confidence in the Supreme Court in its history. I guess with the current state of division within the United States of America, We The People are not allowed to have any more nice things. Unless of course, you’re a Conservative Justice on the Supreme Court because they get all the best gifts Republican Billionaire Donors can supply. Let’s just hope that Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni doesn’t forget her sunscreen. We wouldn’t want that pig in the bright pink lipstick to roast in the Myrtle Beach sun.
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The-Anti-Social-Media Pro-DEMOCRACY WING 