U.S. Supreme Court smacks down anti-democracy Texas right-wingers

Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the principle of setting legislative districts based on total population, unanimously rejecting a conservative challenge that would have disadvantaged urban areas with large immigrant populations.

The court ruled that the "one person, one vote" rule allows counting non-voters, including minors, prisoners, ex-convicts and immigrants.

"We hold, based on constitutional history, this court's decisions, and longstanding practice, that a state may draw its legislative districts based on total population," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote in delivering the court's opinion.

The plaintiffs -- Sue Evenwel and Edward Pfenninger -- argued that Texas should count only eligible voters in drawing up legislative districts of roughly equal size.

That would have favored rural areas with a high proportion of eligible voters in the allocation of legislative districts, over urban areas with larger absolute populations but a smaller proportion of eligible voters.

Since urban areas tend to vote Democratic and rural areas Republican, how the population is counted has a direct political impact.

If a state bases its electoral districting on the total population -- and all 50 states do -- people who are ineligible to vote are counted in the process.

These ineligible populations are usually present in larger numbers in urban areas.

eddie wrote:I thought that thread title said "Supreme Court smacks Texans"
I was like yeah.....smack them...smack them all

Lord Foul wrote:I thought jam jars were a taboo subject