WHEN the Supreme Court heard Cooper v Harris last December, an exasperated Justice Stephen Breyer lamented that the justices were stuck, yet again, “reviewing 5,000-page records” to determine if states had violated the constitution when drawing electoral district lines. The legal standard, Justice Samuel Alito added, is “very, very complicated” and serves as “an invitation to litigation”. On May 22nd, Justice Alito repeated this sentiment, in a biting partial dissent, as the court slammed North Carolina Republicans for giving too much thought to race when crafting two congressional districts. The decision, Justice Alito warned, will give voters renewed cause to try to “obtain in court what they could not achieve in the political arena” and turn the “federal courts...into weapons of political warfare”.
Both sides in this 5-3 decision called attention to the fact that one of the districts at issue was making its fifth appearance before the justices since the 1990s. (Justice Alito emphasised...Continue reading
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