Surprised this hasn’t been diaried.
In Tuesday’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Gill v. Whitford, (Wisconsin gerrymandering), the liberal justices and justice Kennedy were grilling the Wisconsin attorneys with tough questions on the issue. They went back-and-forth on points of law, maps, etc, etc.
Then Sotomayor asked one simple question: Could you tell me what the value is to democracy from political gerrymandering? How does that help our system of government?
Erin Murphy (Wisconsin rep), who is described as a very competent and seasoned lawyer, was reduced to word salad trying to formulate a response.
You can read the whole article on Slate. The other piece of good news in the article is that Kennedy joined the “liberal justices” in going after the Wisconsin position. What I’ve gleaned from previous cases is that Kennedy does believe gerrymandering is wrong. His reason for not for supporting anti-gerrymandering positions in previous cases is his concern as to whether this issue is the purview of the Supreme Court. This is why RBG’s comment about one man, one vote is prescient. If Kennedy can be convinced that tenant is indeed being subverted, there is hope he may finally side with the majority of Americans.
www.slate.com/...