Action on partisan gerrymandering by the Supreme Court was already on its last legs with the Gill decision. With Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, at least now we won’t have to sit around wondering what will happen next.
To tell the truth, he seemed so passive this term. Stayed with the conservatives on every decision, and didn’t take the slow fat pitch that was sent his way in Gill v. Whitford. And that defeated-sounding concurrence in Trump v. Hawaii…the writing was on the wall.
What’s left? Action at a state-by-state level. The renewed interest in federalism (the principle that law and policy originate both nationally and locally) on the liberal side is going to get even greater. On the gerrymandering front, there is more to say – a surprising amount, actually, and surprisingly good. I will explain more in due course, but not right now.
Don’t wait too long. There is much sadness in Mudville for the moment, and I need a little Pick-me-andering-up.
It’ll take a little while. If you’ve been reading PEC you know some of it already. Reform’s not dead yet!
Spell check or proof reading seems to have failed Lyle Denniston in an amusing way in his post on the retirement:
“Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, 81, retired on Wednesday afternoon, hours after the tribunal had finished a momentous term. His retirement takes effect at the end of the month, giving President Truman . . . .”
Denniston first began covering judicial affairs in 1948.
I’ll just leave these two things here:
A) in the absence of a higher authority to enforce cooperation game theory rules: https://ncase.me/trust/
B) what needs to be done now to stop the Gerrymandering, snakes for the Garden of Eden: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/A_Private_Little_War_(episode)