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SCOTUS unanimously rejects challenge to ‘one person, one vote’

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by mdrowe00, Apr 4, 2016.

  1. mdrowe00

    mdrowe00 Member

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    Wondering if there were any thoughts on this ruling...
    ...Particularly considering the fact that the High Court is seated only eight Justices right now, and without one dissenting vote in the case...

     
  2. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    Looks like a bad case that deserved to be tossed out. I don't think it would have made a difference if there was an extra justice, pretty much no matter who it was.
     
  3. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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    sounds like they are ruling states can use total population, not that they must

    of course, if that challenge happens, the four lefty justices will say states must use total population, because they always rule for their preferred political outcome
     
  4. Cohete Rojo

    Cohete Rojo Contributing Member

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    How was this going to "reduce the voting strength of the nation’s Latino population"? Electoral votes are allotted by US Census data on total population. Trying to redistrict by "voting population" would open up a can of worms. Do you then exclude minors, non-registered voters, felons, etc?
     
  5. Deckard

    Deckard Blade Runner
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    A good ruling by the nation's highest court. I hope to see more good rulings in the future with the self-destruction of the Republican Party that's underway.
     
  6. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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    To use an extreme example, let's say I am the only eligible voter in a district with 10 total people.

    You on the other hand, are one of ten eligible voters in a district with 10 total people.

    My vote is worth 100% of the total. Your vote is only worth 10% of the total. Therefore we are being treated unequally because your vote is worth less.
     
  7. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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    notice Ginsburg is unable to reference the text of the Constitution to justify her "total population" ruling, because the Constitution has nothing to say on the matter

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-940_ed9g.pdf

    Thomas, as usual, has it correct:

     
  8. pirc1

    pirc1 Contributing Member

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    What if I am the only eligible voter in my district, but there are 9 more non eligible citizens(kids) in my district. Should their rights be represented or not? If you start doing more detailed census, it will be a night mare to keep track of things, what about the people who died after census? one person one vote is just a rough estimate of the eligible voters, it is probably the easiest to get.
     
  9. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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    Unless you can vote, you aren't being represented, regardless of the population standard used.
     
  10. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    That's not true. Even if you don't/can't vote, you are still represented.
     
  11. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

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    If you don't vote but can, you are still somewhat represented, because the representative is threatened by your potential future vote.

    If you can't vote, the representative has no incentive to represent your views.

    If a district has 10 voting eligible nazis and 100 noneligible jews, the nazi that gets elected does not represented the jews in any meaningful way.
     
  12. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    I think that makes sense. In practice and by design, people's votes count differently based on a variety of circumstances. In truth, the basic electoral unit is not always the individual. In a presidential general election, the electoral units are the states. In elections to Congress, your path to representation is different between the House and the Senate. We built these different mechanisms of voting and representation on purpose. It should be no surprise then that districts are drawn up in ways that produce variable voting power. In your extreme example of the one guy who is empowered to make the decision for the 10, that's just how it goes. It's probably no more a miscarriage of democracy than giving every state equal representation in the Senate regardless of population, having Presidents appoint Supreme Court Justices, or allotting Electoral College votes such that a candidate can win a 2-man race for President while losing the popular vote.
     
  13. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    If the district has 9 eligible nazis and 1 ineligible nazi, the ineligible nazi is still represented because he has interests generally in line with the 9 eligible nazis.
     
  14. pirc1

    pirc1 Contributing Member

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    Just to be clear, the rights of citizens under the age of 18 should not be represented right?
     
  15. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    Even if you can vote, if you live in a district that is strongly against your views, the representative still has no incentive to represent your views. Does that mean that liberals in most of Texas aren't represented? Of course not. Does that mean conservatives in California aren't represented? Of course not.

    You don't have to agree with your representative to be represented but if you don't agree with them and the vast majority of your district does, they have no reason to push your views. That's just life.
     
  16. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    It's always good when the court gets one right (in other words rules the way I would rule if I were on the court.).
     
  17. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Don't misconstrue him. He didn't say anything about 'should.' He's saying voters have power over politicians that nonvoters do not.

    What if you live in Flint and you favor clean drinking water?

    I'm not disagreeing with you (I don't know where I'm at in this thread, generally. I seem to be all over the map!). I think your elected representatives still somehow 'represent' you even if they do the opposite of what you want in every decision they make. But there is also a very real way in which your representatives end up actively opposed to your own interests. In the case of Flint, the Governor essentially ignored complaints from Flint residents because he assumed it was grousing by political enemies. And it happened because, given the incredible circumstances in Michigan, the state was able to neuter more local representation and bury the minority interest in a larger pool of state-wide voters.
     
  18. okierock

    okierock Contributing Member

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    I think this is the perfect analogy.

    In this case the 10 nazis get represented as 110 votes against anything the jew would have ever voted for. This is wrong.
     
  19. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    In that case, you are still represented, just not by someone you want to represent you. It's really no different than a conservative who doesn't like that Obama represents them in things like the Iran deal.
     
  20. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    OP - you really need to include a link in your post. You can't just post things without citing the source.
     

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