Supreme Court rules federal courts cannot invalidate partisan gerrymandering [pdf]

Re:Supreme Court rules federal courts cannot invalidate part... by evgen on Thursday June 27, 2019 @12:21PM (#20295882)

They can do it without passing a law actually (which is a bit scary if you think about it.) Congress and congress alone has the power to determine its membership. They can simply pass a resolution stating that no member who was elected by a district that was gerrymandered by some specific criteria will be seated in the future. The courts can go pound sand if they don't like it.

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Re:Supreme Court rules federal courts cannot invalidate part... by pvg on Thursday June 27, 2019 @12:36PM (#20296046)

Some of this has been litigated and it's not quite that black and white. Take a look at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_v._McCormack

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Re:Supreme Court rules federal courts cannot invalidate part... by evgen on Thursday June 27, 2019 @02:39PM (#20297261)

Yes, the court can make such claims as they do in Powell, and Congress can ignore them. It is pure power politics, but the reputation of the court has been so diminished that Congress could easily get away with refusing to seat a member or two and there is really nothing that anyone could do to stop them.

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Re:Supreme Court rules federal courts cannot invalidate part... by pvg on Thursday June 27, 2019 @04:26PM (#20298356)

You can make that argument about anything, though and it be would be equally applicable. 'The branches of the US government can start ignoring each other'. Sure, they could but that possibility doesn't really offer any useful insight. It's like saying I can become world heavyweight boxing champion by shooting my opponents.

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