Headline: Republicans against Democracy

As you may know, a few years ago, a case came before the Supreme Court which many thought of as an opportunity for the Court to hold that partisan gerrymanding, which can result in the controlling party in a state drawing boundaries of districts so that, for instance, in a state where only 43% of the population votes for candidates from one party, 57% of state’s Congressional districts, and state legislature districts end up being held by candidates of that party, resulting in control of the minority over the majority.

Republicans have proved to be more adept and aggressive than Democrats in employing gerrymandering to gain and retain control of state legislatures and achieve disproportionately large representation in Congress. Rather than banning this undemocratic practice, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision a few years ago, washed their hands of it. They said it would be too hard for them to deal with such a matter on the federal level: Let the states take care of it, they said: State courts can stop it, basing their rulings on bedrock principles in most state Constitutions.

Recently, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case which would turn on the validity of a cockamamie legal theory that supports the conclusion that state courts cannot rely on the authority of state constitutions to prevent state legislatures from taking whatever rankly partisan action they want to. Why would the Supreme Court take such a case unless they were ready to put their stamp of approval on this bizarre theory and proclaim it to be the law? If the five extreme right-wing justices who presently control he court issue such a ruling, they will confirm what already seems to be the case that, like most Republicans, they are against democracy. They are content to end it because their governing credo is to take and preserve power.