Gerrymandering - Geological Deceit? - 5

Iraqi Curse: "May the Bushies bring you democracy !"

This series has pointed out the plague of undemocratic gerrymandering.

In the U.S. it is being promulgated by republican legislatures around the country  (Gerrymandering - Geological Deceit?, 2, 3, 4).

It may be that the State of Arizona, of all places, has crafted a workable medicine with which to treat the gerrymander election disease.

It is a medicine that those in the GOP with the gerrymander election disease did not like.

Nevertheless, because of today's U.S. Supreme Court decision it is medicine which the GOP of Arizona now has to take.

The basic background is as follows:

Under Arizona’s Constitution, the electorate shares lawmaking authority on equal footing with the Arizona Legislature. The voters may adopt laws and constitutional amendments by ballot initiative, and they may approve or disapprove, by referendum, measures passed by the Legislature. Ariz. Const., Art. IV, pt. 1, §1. “Any law which may be enacted by the Legislature . . . may be enacted by the people under the Initiative.” Art. XXII, §14.

In 2000, Arizona voters adopted Proposition 106, an initiative aimed at the problem of gerrymandering ... removing redistricting authority from the Arizona Legislature and vesting it in an independent commission, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commissiom (AIRC).

(Arizona State Legislature v. AIRC, emphasis added). The AIRC is likely to remember all those hellfire and damnation words that the GOP used in its lawsuit against them.

A lawsuit designed to thwart the will of the people as expressed by their creation of the AIRC by their votes in a valid election.

The gist of the case is described by Justice Ginsburg as follows:

This case concerns an endeavor by Arizona voters to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering—the drawing of legislative district lines to subordinate adherents of one political party and entrench a rival party in power.¹ “[P]artisan gerrymanders,” this Court has recognized, “[are incompatible] with democratic principles.” Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U. S. 267, 292 (2004) ...
——————
1 The term “gerrymander” is a portmanteau of the last name of El-
bridge Gerry, the eighth Governor of Massachusetts, and the shape of
the electoral map he famously contorted for partisan gain, which
included one district shaped like a salamander. See E. Griffith, The
Rise and Development of the Gerrymander 16–19 (Arno ed. 1974).

(Arizona State Legislature v. AIRC). The GOP only wants to stay in power and they only sued the people's commissioners because the people were corrupted by power (wink, wink).

The GOP suers (pronounced "sewers") argued that the U.S. Constituion had a clause that says only those in power can be "The Decider" --but the Supremes said that is true because "power to the people !"

What are they going to do now,  resort to black merda (Symbolic Racism: A Look At The Science - 10)?

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

---

Black Merda ("They are considered to be the first all black rock band"):

---