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November 18, 2004
Gerrymandering and Scalia
A while ago I blogged that it might take the Supreme court to fix the gerrymandering problem. According to this liveblogging report by Letters of Marque, Scalia does not sound like he is to eager to step in. Here is the relevant part:
"Q: Comment on court's role in protecting integrity of political process. E.g. Vlieth. About gerrymandering.
Scalia says: "that's not corruption; that's good old politics." It's nothing new. Not unconstitutional. Fighting corruption is okay if there's a law against it. Nobody thinks that all gerrymanders are bad. Ct. never has a majority to say what criterion of too much gerrymandering is. Nobody willing to say that any political influence is too much. Can't pick a line. Kennedy said, "don't know what the line is, but there should be one." People are "wandering in the wilderness with a lamp" looking for a standard. If there's no discernible intellectual line, this is almost the definition of non-justiciable. If you can come up with a line, he'll sign on."
It sounds like it may be up to individual states to solve the problem. Hopefully they will follow Iowa's example and let a third party do redistricting.
Posted by Pete at November 18, 2004 08:50 AM
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