Search all library resources

Redistricting : the most political activity in America

This book will prepare readers for the redistricting of congressional, state legislative, and local collegial bodies that will follow the 2010 Census. Almost every state legislature will devote extensive time to redrawing its own districts along with the state's congressional districts during 2011-2012. Chapters 2 through 5 cover the major factors involved in drawing the new maps. These are arranged in the order of their legal prominence beginning with the need for equal populations before moving to the obligation to avoid discriminating against minorities. Chapter 4 examines the other elements weighed by those redrawing districts: compactness, respect for political boundaries and communities of interest. Chapter 5 deals with partisan considerations and consequences of redistricting. More than any other state, Georgia has probably been the locale for more precedent-setting cases and had more difficulty securing Department of Justice approval of its districting plans. Chapter 6 uses Georgia as a case study to demonstrate the application of a number of concepts discussed in the preceding four chapters. The seventh chapter provides a preview of the post-2010 redistricting with a discussion of projections of likely congressional reapportionment. The final chapter also considers how the changes in the Voting Rights Act adopted in 2006 may affect the next round of redistricting.

Ratf**ked : the true story behind the secret plan to steal America's democracy

"The explosive account of how Republican legislators and political operatives fundamentally rigged our American democracy through redistricting,"--NoveList.With Barack Obama's historic election in 2008, pundits proclaimed the Republicans as dead as the Whigs of yesteryear. Yet even as Democrats swooned, a small cadre of Republican operatives began plotting their comeback with a simple yet ingenious plan. These men had devised a way to take a tradition of dirty tricks-known to political insiders as "ratf**king"-to an unprecedented level. Flooding state races with a gold rush of dark money, the Republicans reshaped state legislatures where the power to redistrict is held. Reconstructing this previously untold story, David Daley examines the far-reaching effects of this programme, which has radically altered America's electoral map and created a firewall in the House. Ratf**ked pulls back the curtain on one of the greatest heists in American political history.

Whitelash : unmasking White grievance at the ballot box

If postmortems of the 2016 US presidential election tell us anything, it's that many voters discriminate on the basis of race, which raises an important question: in a society that outlaws racial discrimination in employment, housing, and jury selections, should voters be permitted to racially discriminate in selecting a candidate for public office? In Whitelash, Terry Smith argues that such racialized decision-making is unlawful and that remedies exist to deter this reactionary behavior. Using evidence of race-based voting in the 2016 presidential election, Smith deploys legal analogies to demonstrate how courts can decipher when groups of voters have been impermissibly influenced by race, and impose appropriate remedies. This groundbreaking work should be read by anyone interested in how the legal system can re-direct American democracy away from the ongoing electoral scourge that many feared 2016 portended.

Online Cambridge University Press