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Tag: Gill v. Whitford

Court may use First Amendment to end extreme partisan gerrymandering

Court may use First Amendment to end extreme partisan gerrymandering

Edward Fitzpatrick, RWU director of media and public relations, a New England First Amendment Coalition and Common Cause Rhode Island board member, and a former Providence Journal columnist: The First Amendment has been pressed into action to protect everything from burning the American flag to unleashing corporate cash in campaigns. But now the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to employ the First Amendment to do something we can all feel good about – putting an end to extreme partisan gerrymandering….

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Gerrymandering case may hinge on First Amendment

Gerrymandering case may hinge on First Amendment

June Speakman, RWU political science professor: In a recent Slate.com article, Mark Joseph Stern poses an intriguing question: Does partisan gerrymandering violate the First Amendment? His answer is yes, and I agree. Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing lines around legislative districts for the purposes of influencing electoral outcomes by packing like-minded voters together or dividing them into tiny groups (called “cracking” by political scientists). This task of line-drawing is assigned to state legislatures by the Constitution. It takes place every…

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