Supreme Court VA redistricting decision a big win for Democrats, but a strange bedfellows ruling

[StarfishSaver]

A conservative Supreme Court gave Democrats a major victory over Republicans in Virginia Monday by spurning the GOP's defense of election maps drawn with both racial and partisan overtones.

The justices ruled that the Republican-controlled House of Delegates lacked the authority to challenge a federal district court decision striking down the maps after the state's Democratic attorney general refused to do so.

The decision was written by Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was joined by two conservative and two liberal colleagues. Associate Justice Samuel Alito dissented and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh.
...
The decision leaves intact this month's primary elections in Virginia, where voters go to the polls in odd-numbered years to elect state officials. Some races were held in districts redrawn after the district court said Republicans' maps were designed to dilute African Americans' voting strength.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/17/race-and-politics-supreme-court-rules-virginia-election-districts/1419708001/

This is a very interesting vote breakdown - Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan, Thomas and Gorsuch were in the majority, while Roberts, Alito, Breyer and Kavanaugh dissented.

[empedocles]

1. 'A win is a win' . . . but . . .

thank you for the breakdown.

[Thomas always gives the creeps - and I have met and advised him in person, once upon a time. And, only once, if I sound defensive. Sort of like Hilllary, 'having a few bank clients', , Ironically, it was an affirmative action issue to his advantage ]

[StarfishSaver]

4. Ewww. Poor you!

I once ran into Ginny Thomas in a coffeehouse. She looked familiar, but I couldn't place her, so I thought she was someone I'd worked with before. I was really friendly and chatted with her for awhile, racking my brain trying to figure out how I knew her. After getting our coffee, we sat down and some people joined her for a meeting. When I overheard them talking about some right wing conservative crazy, I realized who she was. I wanted to go over to her and tell her I was nice to her by mistake and take it all back and then tell her what I thought of her husband. I didn't, because my people raised me better than that. But she was probably delighted to have black woman be so nice to her. It probably doesn't happen too often.

[empedocles]

13. Thomas was a walk-in client to consult for legal advice.

Felt wrong immediately, took a call with him in my office from colleague warning me, pushed him out soon. 'No charge sir'.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Here's a link to the opinion:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-281_6j37.pdf

It is a somewhat strange majority/minority breakdown, but it seems to have been decided on the narrow issue of whether one chamber of a bicameral legislature represents the state for purposes of legal standing. I'm not sure there's a clear conservative vs. liberal distinction here.

[StarfishSaver]

5. True

Which gives me some hope about how the Court will handle Trump cases.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. I think Dolt 45 might be unpleasantly surprised at some decisions before long.

He seems to think that he now "owns" the court, figuring his appointees will ensure he will win any cases that come before them. But because the justices have lifetime appointments they are not beholden to him and don't have to fear being fired if they don't do his bidding. I think we can assume Gorsuch and Kavanaugh will be pretty reliably pro-business and that they will follow the Scalia model of constitutional originalism, but Spanky can't assume they will rule in his favor just because he appointed them. The courts jealously protect their power as an equal branch of government and they've been known more than once to slap down the executive.

[StarfishSaver]

7. Agree - especially with regard to Roberts

He's a right winger, but he also has integrity and cares about the rule of law, the Court and his legacy. I doubt he's going to want to hitch his wagon to Trump or appear too closely aligned with Kavanaugh. He doesn't want to go down in history as a modern-day roger Taney.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Taney will always be remembered for the Dred Scott decision,

generally considered to be the worst Supreme Court decision ever (although IMO the ridiculously disingenuous Bush v. Gore comes pretty close), but he was right in Ex parte Merryman. Trump would suspend habeas corpus too, if he could get away with it.

[empedocles]

15. Several Supreme Court litigators have expressed cautious optimism, at least on CJ Roberts.

I have often cited 'Taney's Ghost' in connection with Roberts and his legacy concerns.

However, I worry about my money on one horse named 'Taney's Ghost' on these serious issues.

Imho, ''TANEY'S GHOST'' would be a great name for a Triple Crown contender though.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Feels like they're taking turns being reasonable

So whenever they go full wingnut they can point to 5-4 decisions where they lined up with the liberals.

Two other points:

Hope I’m wrong, and I’ll take it.

[RichardRay]

9. Please read more carefully

The decision was based on standing, not the gerrymandering. Big difference.

[COLGATE4]

10. Yep. It's truly a "technical" win for the Dems but

(of course) left untouched the whole issue of racial gerrymandering. There's little to no precedent here.

[StarfishSaver]

17. I didn't say otherwise

[Amishman]

18. The most interesting parties the insight provided into Gorsuch

IMO, this is absolutely a correct ruling from a legal perspective and they did not have standing. In this ruling, Gorsuch comes across as the conservative constitutionalist he claimed to be. It's always interesting when a prominent conservative holds to principle when it conflicts with the interests of the Pub Party. There is an established history of Thomas doing this, just surprising to see Gorsuch follow.

[LonePirate]

11. Did Breyer offer any opinions related to his dissent? Very odd of him to defect.

The far right must be fuming at Gorsuch. I suspect they will give a pass to Thomas; but the Gorsuch stance here must have caused some right wing heads to explode.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. It was a technical procedural decision,

and apparently the justices disagreed for non-ideological reasons. Which is the way it should be.

[mfcorey1]

12. Oh, oh...Trump will turn on Kavanaugh and what'shisname over

Supreme court rulings. And he can't fire them!

[Norbert]

14. Thought and prayers to Donnie Dimwit