Agonizingly Slow Justice In The Court System Abets The GOP's Disenfranchisement Of Voters
The Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s decision striking down North Carolina’s state legislative voting districts as being racially gerrymandered in violation of the Constitution. This follows on an earlier Supreme Court decision that ruled that some North Carolina congressional districts were also illegally gerrymandered.
Earlier, in March, a federal panel struck down the Texas congressional districts, again saying that the gerrymandering was more racial than partisan. Today’s Supreme Court ruling on North Carolina does not bode well for the Texas case, although there are some differences.
For a detailed examination of the current state of gerrymandering and voter suppression, please read this informative Daily Kos post. However, the point I would like to make about both the Texas and North Carolina cases is that these illegal gerrymanders have worked for Republicans.
Both the maps in North Carolina and Texas were drawn in 2011 and voters in both states have had to participate in multiple election cycles where certain voters, particularly minorities, were essentially disenfranchised. It is quite possible that some voters will have participated in more elections this decade where they were effectively disenfranchised than not. This is largely due to the difficulty of challenging these districts to begin with and then having to fight Republican delaying tactics as these cases make the time consuming slog through all levels of the judiciary system. These maps were drawn in 2011 and are only being ruled unconstitutional now, six years later.
In addition, there is nothing to stop Republicans from re-drawing new illegal districts again for the 2018 and 2020 elections and then making voting rights advocates fight their way through the courts again, which will delay the process until new districts are created after the 2020 census, where the GOP can begin the process all over again.
The only enforcement instrument for restricting what the Republicans have done in Texas and North Carolina were the Articles 4 and 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Section 4 required nine states, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, as well as dozens of other cities and counties around the United States to get preclearance from the Justice Department for any significant changes in election law. Section 5 required Congressional re-approval and essentially required elections law to stay in place in those above jurisdictions until the clearance had been granted. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that Section 4 was unconstitutional, thereby making Section 5 moot.
More than just freeing those states, cities, and counties listed in Section 4 from effective oversight, the Supreme Court decision pretty much declared that it was open season for extreme gerrymandering and voter suppression across the country. And Republicans went right to it.
The courts have, understandably, been reluctant to interfere in the election process (except the egregious Bush v. Gore decision). But, by gutting the only enforcement measure to ensure voting rights in a timely and effective manner, the courts have essentially ended up denying voting rights to millions. And, unless the courts become more assertive in reviewing election districts and voting rights or define a clear standard that focuses on results and not intent, that will not change in the near future. In striking down the guts of the VRA and then refusing to involve themselves in the details of gerrymandering and voting rights, the courts have shown themselves unable and unwilling to protect the voting rights of minorities and defend the constitutional right to vote. And that does not make for a healthy democracy.