|
Friends,
Today's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling denying a role for federal courts to combat partisan gerrymandering is extremely disappointing. Sadly, it's not wholly unexpected.
I vehemently disagree with the court's decision that the partisan gerrymandering of district maps to create and entrench a seat advantage is purely a political question. It is an abuse of power. Free and fair elections are the foundation of our American democracy, and a toxic combination of technology and hyperpartisanship have led directly to our broken politics today. As Justice Elena Kagan said in her fiery dissent, "What was possible with paper and pen—or even with Windows 95—doesn’t hold a candle (or an LED bulb?) to what will become possible with developments like machine learning. And someplace along this road, “we the people” become sovereign no longer."
With Trump appointing two extremely conservative justices to the court, we knew these decisions could happen. This is yet another threat to our democracy, but we must remember there are paths forward. Hope is not lost - through your efforts and those like you around the country, we overcame heavily gerrymandered Republican districts to take back the House last fall.
What's next? We continue this fight. We continue our work to stop gerrymandering at the state levels by filing state lawsuits, winning state level judicial elections, pushing for independent redistricting commissions and, perhaps most fundamentally, winning back state legislatures by investing in compelling candidates. Further, we cannot allow Trump another Supreme Court nomination to further cement this conservative court majority. We need to take the Senate back. We need to keep the House.
Our democracy depends on it and on us. We have work to do.
How we react now and where we put our efforts now matters. I'm doing my part to stand up for our shared values in Congress, and I won't stop.
Thanks for standing with me.
Jim
Express Donate:
If you've stored your info with ActBlue, we'll process your contribution instantly:
|
