Challenging California ’s System of Racial Representation
Ilya Shapiro andMichael CollinsDilution is a scientific term for dissolving a substance and weakening it by spreading it out, like dropping salt into water. Voter dilution spreads a geographically close minority group out through a political unit to lessen the strength of the votes of its members.But people who share a minority characteristic are not assumed to be a monolith, so the Supreme Court has set specific guidelines to determine whether an at ‐large voting system, for example, actually dilutes the voice of racial minorities.Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) held that, for dilution challenges to at ‐large voting systems under the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA), a challenger must show that (1) the group is “politically cohesive” in addition to being a minority, (2) the group is large enough and compact enough that it would form the majority in a single voting district, and (3) that the majority group votes in a bloc that usually defeats the minority group ’s preferred candidate.Bartlett v. Strickland (2009) reinforced that framework, leaving us with an interpretation of the VRA that protects individuals ’ rights to vote but does not create proportional representation for groups.California passed its own Voting Rights Act to eliminate the geographical requirement. Under the CVRA, challenges to at ‐large voting merely need only show that polarized voting occurs on majority‐minority lines—and then t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Ilya Shapiro, Michael Collins Source Type: blogs