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Category: Politics
Evenwel vs. Abbott — On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously (8-0) rejected an effort to challenge the well-established principle of ‘one person, one vote’ in drawing election districts based upon total population. This decision upholds or affirms the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit; which also rejected the challenge. Read the Decision in its entirety, here.
The Low Down on Sue Evenwel & Edward Pfenninger: The Appellants, both Texas residents, were recruited by Edward Blum, the director of the Project on Fair Representation to challenge the ‘one-person, one-vote’ principle. Blum has earned the reputation of a crusader against civil rights and affirmative action laws. He refers to Evenwel and Pfenninger as his “clients”, although Blum himself, is not an attorney. Evenwel is a Texas GOP and tea party activist and Pfenninger, a self-proclaimed youtuber and defender of the KJB-perfect Bible in English. Ripe for the picking, pretty much sums up these two “clients”.
Background: In a political attempt to reduce the voting power of the nation’s urban Latino and African American population, the Appellants brought a challenge based on a claim that the Texas Senate redistricting boundaries of 2013 (which were based solely on the most recent census population figures from 2010) were unconstitutional and violated the ‘one person, one vote’ principle of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because the districts were not divided in a way that used voter population (i.e., only those registered to vote), rather than total population (i.e., all persons). The Appellants argued that using total population diluted their voting power because they each resided in a district that had a large number of people who were nonvoters, unregistered voters, teens, children, felons and noncitizens. The Appellants argued that only people like them, i.e., registered voters, should be taken into account when drawing districts.
Writing for the majority, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated, “This Court’s past decisions reinforce the conclusion that States and localities may comply with the one-person, one-vote principle by designing districts with equal total populations.” The Justice went on to argue that requiring districts to be divided only by counting those eligible to vote would upset an approach that all states and numerous jurisdictions have historically followed. She went on to add that,
“Nonvoters have an important stake in many policy debates and in receiving constituent services. By ensuring that each representative is subject to requests and suggestions from the same number of constituents, total-population apportionment promotes equitable and effective representation.”
This was a clear victory for voting rights proponents. While the state of Texas wanted the option to choose either total population or voter population, the Court only decided that Texas’ current use of total population passed muster and it declined to rule on whether other methods of drawing boundaries could be used. [click the Title for comments]
On December 17, 2014, the United States and Cuba announced that they would begin the process to normalize relations between the two countries. Since that time, the two countries have established diplomatic relations and opened embassies. Agreements have been reached to restore direct flights and mail service. Commercial ties have been expanded and increased the capacity of Americans to travel and do business in Cuba.
On March 22, 2016, President Obama became the first American President to visit Cuba in 88 years. During this historical visit, the President brought “saludos de paz” and shared his vision for what the relationship between the two countries should be. Speaking in English and some occasional Spanish, President Obama emphasized that a country’s greatest asset is its people, leaving the Cuban people with a hopeful message for the future.
The President’s historic visit to Cuba was capped off by an exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National Team. This was the first Major League Baseball match in Cuba since 1999. [click the Title for comments]
So, one day some years back, a group of Latino business people, judges, lawyers, labor and community leaders started meeting regularly to discuss the proverbial political “seat at the table”. You know, when like-minded folks get together to strategize over how Latinos could gain some political influence in the City of Detroit and State of Michigan. It was a presidential election year and President Obama was running for a well-deserved, second term.
Under state law, the three public research universities’ (Wayne State, Michigan State and University of Michigan) governing boards must be elected in a partisan, statewide election. These positions wield power as these elected boards control all institutional policy, money, tuition rates and we also happen to be the university presidents’ bosses. Elected board members serve an eight (8) year term and must serve without pay. That’s right, eight year terms for free … a true public service job! That year, there were two open seats on the Wayne State Board of Governors. Our Latino group decided we’d put forth a Latino candidate for nomination by the Democratic party. We all left the gathering with the idea of scouting our community to select the right candidate to represent us. We agreed we’d all touch base in a few weeks.
Some time had gone by, and I received a call from one of the women in the group who proudly exclaimed she’d found a candidate for us to get behind. Thrilled, I asked who this person was, so that we could begin building a coalition behind him/her. “It’s you, Sandy!” Every excuse for not running for office seemed to rush through my head, almost immediately… I was a mother of three young children, I owned a small business, I didn’t know enough about the higher education world, I had never run for any elected office, let alone, a statewide contest, how would I get the Party’s nomination and the list of excuses seemed endless.
