Today the United States Supreme Court voted 5–4 to endorse gerrymandering. They really did. Even as it held that gerrymandering is “incompatible with democratic principles” the Supreme Court determined that stopping it was beyond the reach of the judicial branch. The core of the Supreme Court majority’s argument was that preventing that which is “incompatible with democratic principles” is just too darn hard for judges to do.
Instead, the court declared this “a political question beyond the competence of the federal courts.” Accordingly, the solution, per this court, must come from the political process. In other words, Congress must end the gerrymandering that elected many of its members.
The same broken political system that produced the gerrymandering must fix it. The same Congress critters who gained power through gerrymandering are the ones the Supreme Court is relying on to end it. It’s Kafkaesque mind bogglingly insane.
If this is not the most blatant example of deputizing the fox to guard the henhouse in American political history I don’t know what is.
I encourage everyone to read the decision, and the well written dissent by Justice Kagan.
