From: nobody@nowhere.com   
      
   On 2/4/2026 5:48 PM, BTR1701 wrote:   
   > On Feb 4, 2026 at 11:59:13 AM PST, ""Adam H. Kerman""  wrote:   
   >   
   >> As vile and illiberal as various Trump policies have been since he   
   >> regained the presidency, the biggest threat to our democracy has been   
   >> John Roberts preventing federal courts from reviewing too many terrible   
   >> choices made by state legislatures that take away rights from   
   >> individuals.   
   >>   
   >> Yes, I've always blamed the inflexibility of the Voting Rights Act of   
   >> 1964, which effectively mandates single-member districts. You see, to   
   >> have minority representation, however defined, district lines must be   
   >> gerrymandared to make a minority a majority of the voting population, at   
   >> least in that district. With cummulative voting or other methods and   
   >> multi-member districts, minorities get to define themselves and choose   
   >> their own representatives, say one out of three elected, with no   
   >> gerrymandering at all.   
   >>   
   >> But no, redistricting is political, which courts cannot review. The   
   >> solution is political, except that's a Catch 22 as gerrymandering allows   
   >> incumbants to select their constituency in lieu of the constituency   
   >> selecting its representation.   
   >>   
   >> Somehow Roberts fails to recognize the obvious as it's inconvenient for   
   >> his legal theory.   
   >>   
   >> Both political maps pushed by Trump, the Texas map favoring Republucans   
   >> in congressional redistricting and the California map, in reaction,   
   >> favoring Democrats, will not be enjoined. This was expected. No justice   
   >> dissented.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-california-congressi   
   nal-maps-8362a34b739ea91d37a190eee1b6a6d1   
   >>   
   >> I'm a moderate. I get zero representation.   
   >   
   > Join the club. Thanks to Gavvy, he redistricted away all but 3% of the   
   > conservative congressional delegation in California, while 40% of the state   
   > votes conservative in congressional elections. We'll only have Democrats to   
   > choose among from now on.   
      
   For me, the paradox of gerrymandering is that there's no prima facie   
   definition of what principles a "good" allocation is supposed to follow.   
     Afaics, the effective result seems to be that, if you're trying to do   
   it "right", you're doing it wrong.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)