3 ms·
> In other words, it's up to the legislatures to ban gerrymandering first before SCOTUS can rule on it. You're saying that SCOTUS shouldn't act until the peopl
by vkou 4y ago
> In other words, it's up to the legislatures to ban gerrymandering first before SCOTUS can rule on it.
You're saying that SCOTUS shouldn't act until the people rigging elections in their favour... Voluntarily stop rigging elections in their favour?
I'm not sure if that argument is just nakedly partisan, or is simply one that doesn't make a lick of sense.
It's right up there with 'criminals should preside over their own trials' and 'the watchmen should watch themselves'.
- pavlov 4y agoIt feels like a similar interpretation of checks and balances as Nixon's belief that the President cannot commit a crime.
- mannerheim 4y agoI'm saying that, like it or not, there's simply no legal basis for SCOTUS to ban gerrymandering if gerrymandering isn't illegal.
- Spivak 4y agoYeah, the check on the legislature for this kind of thing isn't the courts but the Constitution. Maybe we'll see an amendment in our lifetime.
- mannerheim 4y agoI don't think an amendment would be necessary. Congress has the power to do so without it.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- vkou 4y agoWhy would the legislatures that gerrymandered themselves in amend the constitution to ban this practice? Waiting for a constitutional amendment on anything in this century is like waiting for Santa Claus. He's not coming.
- ModernMech 4y agoWhat you’re saying is true, but it’s not exactly the end of the story in our post Roe world. SCOTUS has proven they are willing to completely reverse their decisions absent a change in fact or law. If nothing changes except the partisan makeup of the court, then their decisions look partisan when they are reversed. So when SCOTUS says they are bound by the law and Constitution to not make certain decisions, a lot of people now rightly ask: are they really? Because it seems that they can move with great alacrity to twist the law when it suits the political aims of their party.