June 28, 2019
In its 5-4 decision yesterday in Rucho v. Common Cause, the conservative majority held that the Supreme Court had no ability to curtail extreme partisan gerrymandering. Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, used anodyne, facially neutral language to mask a deliberate dereliction of duty. The results driven opinion was crafted to allow Republicans the maximum flexibility to entrench minority rule. According to Justice Roberts, it is impossible to come up with a standard for evaluating partisan gerrymandering that is “clear, manageable and politically neutral, [yet] limited and precise,” (Source: “Opinion Analysis: No role for courts in partisan gerrymandering,(Updated),” by Amy Howe, Scotusblog.com, 6/27/19).
Justice Elena Kagan rebuked the majority’s faux haplessness in a sharply worded dissent. She excoriated them for their abdication, stating that “gerrymandering helps create the polarized political system so many Americans loathe…[and] imperil[s] our system of government,” (Source: ibid).
The Court’s opinion in Rucho is the capstone of its six year effort to construct a daunting gauntlet of obstacles between people of color and our right to vote which began with the decision to gut the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, (S.Ct. 2013). These two cases, together with the decision last term allowing voter purges in Husted v. A. Phillip Randolph Institute, (584 U.S. ___, 2018) and permitting states to impose strict voter i.d. requirements will enshrine permanent minority rule by revanchist white supremacists.
Later that same day, the House Democratic Caucus caved to pressure from the so-called “moderates” and passed a $4.6 billion package of border aid funds without any provisions to protect children. It failed to impose the 90 day limit on the detention of children, or to impose any safeguards to ensure that facilities were actually providing safe and sanitary conditions for the children in their custody. Given the conditions that have come to light in the past week, this was a shocking capitulation by House Democrats. Increased funding without conditions will simply empower ICE and CBP to round up and abuse more immigrants and build bigger concentration camps, (Source: “House Passes Senate Border Bill in Rare and Striking Setback for Pelosi,” by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Emily Cochrane, The New York Times, 6/28/19). Apparently the “moderates” of the self-described “Problem Solvers Caucus,” killed the bill out of fear that their refusal to back more funding for ICE would render them vulnerable to charges that they were soft on immigration. In other words, because they feel that they need to pander to racists to get elected, they will fight to allow our government’s continued repugnant and depraved abuse of children. Noted.
These decisions, from two separate branches of our federal government, rendered on the same day, make it chillingly clear that we are governed by a majority who are either in thrall to, or completely cowed by, a white supremacist minority manifestly unwilling to share power, or even space, with people of color. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Do The Right Thing,” and the 50th anniversary of Stonewall this weekend, we would do well to remember the seminal lesson of each–“Fight the Power!”