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: Source Type: blogs