Supreme court sends Alabama 'racial' redistricting case back to lower court

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Supreme court sends Alabama 'racial' redistricting case back to lower court

Associated Press in Washington
Wednesday 25 March 2015 20.55 GMT

A divided supreme court on Wednesday said a lower court must take another look at whether Alabama’s Republican-led legislature relied too heavily on race when it redrew the state’s voting districts in a way that black leaders say limited minority voting power.

The justices split 5-4 across ideological lines in ruling that a three-judge panel did not properly consider complaints that state officials illegally packed black voters into too few voting districts.

Writing for the court, Justice Stephen Breyer said the lower court should have reviewed claims of racial gerrymandering on a district-by-district level, not just statewide. He also said the court did not apply the right test when it found that race was not the primary motivating factor.

Breyer said both the district court and the state legislature relied too much on a “mechanically numerical” view of whether the new plan reduced minority voting strength. Instead of asking how it could maintain the minority percentages in districts, the court should have asked what percentages the minority should have to elect their candidate of choice.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/25/supreme-court-sends-alabama-racial-redistricting-case-back

[Corey_Baker08]

1. This Is A Great Example Of The Importance Of Electing A Democrat As The 45th President...

This like many Supreme Court decisions are split along ideological/political views.

Just as President Obama appointed two Justice's to the SCOTUS, without a doubt the next President will have the obligation to appoint 1 or more Justice's to the Supreme Court of the United States. These Appointments have the ability to sway the Court for years & years to come.

So Whomever the Nominee of the Democratic Party is, whether you supported them in the Democratic Primary or not, ask yourself this, would I rather have A Republican Appointing these Supreme Court Justices, or would I rather have a Democrat Appointing these Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States?