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(new) SCOTUS could decide the makeup for us for generations to come
Fighting partisan gerrymandering is a job for the Supreme Court
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-partisan-gerrymandering-20160831-snap-story.html
For example, under a redistricting plan approved by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, that state elected nine Republicans and four Democrats to the U.S. House in 2012 — even though 51% of North Carolina voters cast ballots for a Democrat.
Another consequence of gerrymandering is a lack of competition between the parties on election day. According to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, only 56 races for the U.S. House out of 435 contests this year are considered competitive. It's easy to game the outcome of elections by creating districts that are either “packed” with a surplus of voters of one party or “cracked” so there aren't enough members of that party to make a competitive election possible.
Either way — to borrow a phrase often heard in this year’s presidential campaign — the system of congressional districting in too many states is rigged. But the federal courts, which long have intervened in the drawing of district lines to guard against the abridgment of voting rights on the basis of race, have been skittish about tackling partisan gerrymandering.
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering could be challenged as unconstitutional if it involved “intentional discrimination against an identifiable political group and an actual discriminatory effect on that group.”
Yet in that case the court didn’t actually find such a violation, and in 2004, four justices led by the late Antonin Scalia said that the court should essentially stop looking. Scalia argued that the court should overturn its 1986 decision and admit that “no judicially discernible and manageable standards for adjudicating political gerrymandering claims have emerged.”
Another consequence of gerrymandering is a lack of competition between the parties on election day. According to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, only 56 races for the U.S. House out of 435 contests this year are considered competitive. It's easy to game the outcome of elections by creating districts that are either “packed” with a surplus of voters of one party or “cracked” so there aren't enough members of that party to make a competitive election possible.
Either way — to borrow a phrase often heard in this year’s presidential campaign — the system of congressional districting in too many states is rigged. But the federal courts, which long have intervened in the drawing of district lines to guard against the abridgment of voting rights on the basis of race, have been skittish about tackling partisan gerrymandering.
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering could be challenged as unconstitutional if it involved “intentional discrimination against an identifiable political group and an actual discriminatory effect on that group.”
Yet in that case the court didn’t actually find such a violation, and in 2004, four justices led by the late Antonin Scalia said that the court should essentially stop looking. Scalia argued that the court should overturn its 1986 decision and admit that “no judicially discernible and manageable standards for adjudicating political gerrymandering claims have emerged.”
IMHO, *this* is a key to regaining control of the House (as well state legislatures). It's quite the uphill battle despite minor efforts at correcting these ridiculously-drawn districts (FL recently re-did some but it's still heavily GOP-favored).
Don the Con will certainly stack the deck in the SCOTUS the second he has the chance to and the GOP dream of one-party rule will take effect and stay in effect until something resembling the French Revolution finally occurs.