Editorialist Steven Chapman writes that the Supreme Court Texas redistricting decision in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry threatens American democracy. In the 2004 U.S. House races, only 5 of the 392 incumbents running for reelection lost to challengers. With its majority opinion allowing for the Texas legislature's partisan redistricting, the Supreme Court gave the states the power to secure offices for the dominant party. Chapman writes:
Supporters of the plan were not bashful about their goal, which required moving 8 million of the state's 22 million people into new districts. The operative idea is simple: If voters don't like your pitch, don't change your pitch - change your voters.
Texas Republicans claimed that Texas' previous districting map was unfair, giving Democrats more seats than their vote total reflected. Chapman writes, "But it's no solution to replace one grossly unfair partisan reapportionment with another. The winners change, but the losers - the people of Texas - remain the same."
You can read the editorial here.
The article originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
You are not logged in.
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account just by filling out the form below. It's quick and free.
