Justice Delayed; Democracy Denied
Yesterday, the Supreme Court, in a remarkably one-sided 7-2 decision, struck down a lower court’s ruling that the North Carolina Congressional districts that were ruled unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering must be redrawn for the 2018 election. Although the decision was expected in light of the Court’s upcoming ruling on partisan gerrymanders in the Wisconsin Gill v. Whitford case, the decision likely means that the maps will not be drawn in time for the 2018 election.
North Carolina’s partisan gerrymander has been remarkably successful. In 2016, Republicans won just 53% of the statewide Congressional vote but managed to win 10 of the 13 House seats. But what’s worse is that the state’s own legislative districts were previously ruled an illegal racial gerrymander. That gerrymander allowed Republicans to dominate the state legislature despite again barely getting more than half of the votes in the state. Lower courts have demanded that the state redraw its districts and even hold special elections but the implementation of those rulings have continually been delayed on appeal or awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court.
What this means in practice is that certain North Carolina voters will have been forced to vote in what federal courts have ruled as unconstitutional districts in every election since 2012, virtually this entire decade.
In 2016, Democrats won the popular vote by 3% and lost the White House because of the undemocratic nature of the Electoral College. In 2018, it is likely that Democrats could win the total number of votes for the House of Representatives by 7% and still end up in the minority in that body. In state after state, Republican gerrymanders have given them far greater political power than the percentage of votes they receive. Combine that with voters who have been disenfranchised by being forced to vote in unconstitutional districts for nearly a decade, and you can’t really call yourself a democracy anymore.
In other bad news for what’s left of our democracy, oral arguments seemed to indicate that the Court will allow states to purge voter rolls of citizens who have not voted in two years and did not respond to a confirmation notice from the state. If the Court allows such a move, you can be sure that Republican-controlled states will begin a massive purge of the voter rolls, purges that are sure to sweep up voters who are still properly registered to vote. Not surprisingly, most of those at risk from these purges are voters who traditionally lean Democratic. And, of course, those same states will erect even more barriers to easily re-register to vote. It is surely a unique “democracy” that is constantly attempting to make it more difficult to vote.
