Podcast: The Supreme Court considers racial gerrymandering
Rick Hasen from the UC-Irvine School of Law and Roger Clegg from the Center for Equal Opportunity join our Jeffrey Rosen to discuss one of the biggest Supreme Court cases this term, about the roles of race and party in determining election districts.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two combined cases from Alabama that asked the Justices to parse out the process of gerrymandering.
After the 2010 Census, Republicans took control of the Alabama state legislature and passed a new legislative map. The new map maintained the same number of “majority-minority” districts in the state Senate and even added one such district in the House.
However, in order to narrow the population differences between districts as well as to maintain the same percentage of minority voters in majority-minority districts, Republicans moved a large number of African-American voters out of majority-white districts and into those with minority majorities.
In response, the Alabama Democratic Party and the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus challenged the map in federal district court. They lost, but under the Voting Rights Act, their cases were directly appealed to the Supreme Court.
To listen to the full podcast on this critical constitutional issue, use the player below or click on the following link: Download this episode (right click and save)
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