Look at a decision rendered by the Supreme Court this week, and wonder if the court members are quite willing to make decisions so as to entrench their party in power.
The court threw out two cases where partisan gerrymandering was alleged.
So, I word search, to see if one party is more inclined to gerrymander than the other. A New York Intelligencer story indicates that might be the case, Then, an Associate Press article suggests that news-gathering agency did draw such a conclusion from an analysis it made.
"The analysis found four times as many state with Republican-skewed state House or Assembly districts than Democratic ones," the story said. "Among the two dozen most populated states that determine the vast majority of Congress, there were nearly three times as many with Republican-tilted U.S. House districts."
So, let's see, the Supreme Court now has a conservative majority. Allowing political gerrymandering favors the Republicans. Any possible connection?
There was perhaps a time when being on the Supreme Court had nothing to do with being a Republican or a Democrat. Those days are past. The court is now divided by its politics.
That the nation's highest court might have handed down a ruling that helps keep its own party in power is disappointing, to say the least. Appalling is an appropriate term.
Just as legislators who draw the districts to favor their party aren't going to admit as much, so the members of the Supreme Court, if they are doing this as a favor to their own party, are not going to admit it.
But, the thought that a court of justice -- even our highest court -- might have sunk to this level is troublesome.
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