Supreme Court wrestles with immigration bond hearing dispute

Sotomayor, Social Science Advocate: “Every metric points in the same direction” toward ending gerrymandering, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. This is why in 2012, Barack Obama carried 27 congressional districts with at least 80 percent of the vote, whereas Mitt Romney carried only one that lopsidedly.

The case pertains directly to Wisconsin but could affect OH and other states. “In 2014 and 2016, Republicans extended their advantage to 63 and 64 seats, respectively, even though the statewide vote remained almost tied”, Whitford said.

The term gerrymandering is derived from an 1812 incident in which Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry allowed a legislative map benefitting his own party to pass into law. They argue the maps represent extreme partisan gerrymander and that they prevent fair and effective representation by diluting voters’ influence and penalizing voters based on their political beliefs. When the case comes before the court, he and his colleagues should be ready to apply it.

Democrats argue that the wide control of redistricting by Republicans has resulted in Democratic candidates having increased difficulty gaining control of legislative bodies in many states. But the decision could affect congressional district apportionment in OH and other states. Her research has been cited in briefs filed with the court.

In addition to its regular monthly $10,000 contributions to each state party, the DNC sent a six-figure sum and the Holder-led group sent $50,000 to the new group Our Votes, Our Voice, which is leading a campaign urging voters to decline to sign the recall petitions. So imagine there were a country transitioning from dictatorship to a multiparty democracy with a parliament, and its leaders asked you how they should go about designing districts.

The Supreme Court for decades has been willing to invalidate state electoral maps on the grounds of racial discrimination but never those drawn simply for partisan advantage. “There will be a lot of these claims” asserting unconstitutional gerrymandering, Roberts said.

Alito also chimed in on whether the court should take over from the political branches.

Trump appointed Gorsuch to fill the seat that had been vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.

The key vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, gave little indication which way he’ll side during the often lively session that saw a familiar partisan split.

If Justice Kennedy decides he wants to reserve the right to second-guess legislatures’ redistricting decisions, he might not like the results. Democrats are going to the Supreme Court on Tuesday to try to change that. While today’s Democrats have undertaken some gerrymandering (most notably in Maryland), Republicans have been more shameless about it, particularly in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida. They worked in secret to fashion precise, computer-generated maps and won approval on a party-line vote.

While the gap can vary widely among individual districts, it can show how and where outcomes are statistically unnatural when districts are compared with one another, proponents of this method say.

Yet if the court reverses the Wisconsin panel’s decision and once again rules that there are no judicial tests available to stop partisan gerrymandering, then we can expect ever more egregiously partisan redistricting.

Supreme Court justices clashed on Tuesday over whether courts should curb the long-standing USA political practice of drawing electoral maps to entrench one party in power, with conservative Anthony Kennedy likely to cast the deciding vote.

Also under review will be whether federal law banning sports betting unconstitutionally commandeers the states into carrying out a federal mandate.

“What becomes of the precious right to vote” when that happens, asked Ginsburg.

By some estimates, that has given the GOP as many as 22 seats in the House of Representatives that they otherwise wouldn’t have won, and that’s before we get to state races.

At issue for the court is whether immigrants slated for deportation have the right to a bail hearing and possible release after six months if they are not a flight risk and pose no danger to the public.