Supreme Court upholds racist gerrymandering in Texas, over Sotomayor's blistering dissent

Daily Kos Staff

Monday June 25, 2018 · 7:48 AM PDT

2018/06/25 · 07:48

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 18: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor participates in an annual Women's History Month reception hosted by Pelosi in the U.S. capitol building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. This year's event honored the women Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. (Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

Republican dirty tricks once again paid off in a pro-gerrymandering Supreme Court decision with Neil Gorsuch as the deciding vote. The court largely backed Texas Republican redistricting that a lower court had thrown out as racially discriminatory.

In a blistering dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that:

The Court today goes out of its way to permit the State of Texas to use maps that he three-judge District Court unanimously found were adopted for the purpose of preserving the racial discrimination that tainted its previous maps. [...]

It means that, after years of litigation and undeniable proof of intentional discrimination, minority voters in Texas—despite constituting a majority of the population of the State—will continue to be underrepresented in the political process.

The deciding vote in favor of racial discrimination was cast by the guy who’s on the court because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held the seat open for him for nearly the full final year of Barack Obama’s presidency. That’s the legacy of today’s Republican Party.

Supreme Court upholds racist gerrymandering in Texas, over Sotomayor's blistering dissent

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