Supreme Court rejects Alabama effort to prevent formation of majority-black district

[beschizza]

Originally published at: Supreme Court rejects Alabama effort to prevent formation of majority-black district | Boing Boing

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[dabeyc]

let’s just take the win today.

[Akimbo_NOT]

Southern Strategy Slap Down?

[gracchus]

The court’s 5-to-4 decision.

Let me guess…

@dabeyc

let’s just take the win today.

I’ll take it, but let’s be clear about what happened. The only reason this decision turned out well is that Roberts didn’t see his precious corporate persons being hurt by it and that he was somehow able to convince Kavanaugh to join him because of their personal relationship (he’s usually voted with Roberts, with the overturning of Roe being a conspicuous exception).

[danimagoo]

I will also take the win, but I am concerned about the fact that the lower court acknowledged that Alabama already conducted one election with the illegal map. What, exactly, is going to prevent them from continuing to use that map? I don’t know if Alabama is going to choose this hill to die on, but one of these days, some red state is going to pick a hill, and we’re going to have a major Constitutional crisis on our hands.

[fredtal]

I’d like to see AI take on redistricting. Just curious.

[sqlrob]

Can’t be trained on existing maps, since that would bake in the bias. It needs to be given maps with only relevant borders and population and use that.

[DukeTrout]

The GOP already uses computer algorithms to crack and stack voters down to the individual dwelling to optimize their gerrymandered maps. AI is just going to do the same based on, as @sqlrob says, gerrymandered training data.

[cnlblgrg]

I mean… the conservative supreme court would’ve been cool with it except the idea of a state ignoring court orders (which some of them are okay with? damn.) Find a way to do it without subverting their line of absolute power and they’ll cheer you the whole damn way.

[Mindysan33]

@danimagoo

What, exactly, is going to prevent them from continuing to use that map?

That concerns me too…

@fredtal

I’d like to see AI take on redistricting.

A non-partisan, non-gerrymanded redistricting that reflects the law will do just nicely and people can do that.

[DukeTrout]

@danimagoo

What, exactly, is going to prevent them from continuing to use that map?

Consent decree? It would be a PITA to have federal employees run Alabama’s elections in 2024, but not unreasonable and not unprecedented.

[Brainspore]

@fredtal

I’d like to see AI take on redistricting

Plenty of non-AI-based approaches for doing that based on nonpartisan criteria.

We don’t need machines to do the work for us to get a fair system. We just need humans who actually want to create a fair system.

[danimagoo]

Sure, but that would require, as the name implies, consent to the decree by the State of Alabama. So you’re still left with the core problem: what if Alabama doesn’t consent? Consent decrees require agreements between both parties, and then the judge essentially issues an order based on that agreement. It’s in between a settlement and a decision. But you still have to get Alabama to agree to it.

[DukeTrout]

Ah, I didn’t know that! Thank you.

I don’t suppose Chicago PD blithely agreed to the consent decree that forced their changes in policy, so maybe it was a threat of worse that forced them to “consent?”

I guess the feds could start proceedings to enforce the redrawn maps in order to get Alabama to “agree” to them, but I wouldn’t trust such an agreement to be fulfilled in good faith.

[danimagoo]

Yeah I think that’s probably correct. Consent decrees were an important step in desegregation, but I think it was because the alternative was the National Guard showing up at your school to enforce desegregation, as happened in Little Rock.