[EL] Justice Alito and Bethune-Hill II dissent

Mon Jun 17 08:40:58 PDT 2019

The passages Rick highlights are also notable for their romantic, but
inaccurate, view of contemporary legislative representation. Justice Alito
writes: "The interests and views of these constituents generally have an
important effect on everything that a legislator does." He continues: "When
the boundaries of a district are changed, the constituents and communities
of interest present within the district are altered, and this is likely to
change the way in which the district’s representative does his or her work."

In fact, today's representatives are shockingly *unresponsive* to their
constituents' preferences. The partisan mix of constituents determines
whether a Democrat or a Republican is elected. But once that partisan
choice is made, constituents' views largely stop mattering. Here, for
example, is a chart from a recent article
<https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/119500> by Devin Caughey, Chris
Tausanovitch, and Chris Warshaw, showing the relationship between state
legislative districts' partisan makeups and state legislators' voting
records. There is obviously a huge difference between Democrats' and
Republicans' voting records. But *within* the group of Democratic or
Republican legislators, there is essentially no connection at all between a
district's partisan composition and its legislator's voting record.
Representatives from safe Democratic or Republican districts are
practically indistinguishable from representatives from competitive seats.

[image: image.png]

On Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 10:03 AM Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu> wrote:

> Justice Alito has always had a particularly keen interest in
> redistricting, which I assume traces to his father’s involvement with the
> redistricting pro0cess during his work with the New Jersey legislature.
> Thus, I am not surprised he wrote the dissent in today’s case.  Leaving
> aside the standing issue itself, his dissent includes many noteworthy
> statements about how much redistricting affects what legislatures do and
> the laws they produce.  Here’s a sampling of the comments that stood out to
> me.  These comments, in my view, are in considerable tension with one
> argument Justice Scalia made in his plurality opinion in *Vieth, *in
> which he argues it is “impossible to assess the effects of partisan
> gerrymandering” because who knows how voters will vote from election to
> election.  From Justice Alito today:
>
>
>
> “A legislative districting plan powerfully affects a legislative body’s
> output of work.”
>
>
>
> “…it matters a lot how voters with shared interests and views are
> concentrated or split up. The cumulative effects of all the decisions that
> go into a districting plan have an important impact on the overall work of
> the body. All of this should really go without saying.”
>
>
>
> “Districting matters because it has institutional and legislative
> consequences.  … To suggest otherwise, to argue that substituting one plan
> for another has no effect on the work or output of the legislative body
> whose districts are changed, would really be quite astounding.  If the
> selection
>
> of a districting plan did not alter what the legislative body does, why
> would there be such pitched battles over redistricting efforts?”
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Richard H. Pildes
>
> Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law
>
> NYU School of Law
>
> 40 Washington Sq. So.
>
> NYC, NY 10012
>
> 212 998-6377
>
>
>
> *From:* Law-election [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]
> *On Behalf Of *Rick Hasen
> *Sent:* Monday, June 17, 2019 10:26 AM
> *To:* Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
> *Subject:* [EL] Bethune-Hill II decided
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Supreme Court, on 5-4 Vote in Bethune-Hill Racial Gerrymandering Case from
> Virginia, Concludes Va. House of Delegates Lacks Standing to Pursue
> Challenge.
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__electionlawblog.org_-3Fp-3D105642&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=FpfO4LiwXDfmif3zgrUNj4juhgqgho8lWIo63sKCiOo&e=>
>
> Posted on June 17, 2019 7:23 am
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__electionlawblog.org_-3Fp-3D105642&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=FpfO4LiwXDfmif3zgrUNj4juhgqgho8lWIo63sKCiOo&e=>
>  by *Rick Hasen*
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__electionlawblog.org_-3Fauthor-3D3&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=uZSQJtx2EQGpq5dQNkZYFpA8qItLE3oW7K_nPhRfOKg&e=>
>
> You can find the opinion here
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.supremecourt.gov_opinions_18pdf_18-2D281-5F6j37.pdf&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=-eqGbLe_46bYNVszNMUeLGtUOwnDGfrGVgUDwGbxVEA&e=>
> .
>
>
>
>
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.addtoany.com_share-23url-3Dhttps-253A-252F-252Felectionlawblog.org-252F-253Fp-253D105642-26title-3DSupreme-2520Court-252C-2520on-25205-2D4-2520Vote-2520in-2520Bethune-2DHill-2520Racial-2520Gerrymandering-2520Case-2520from-2520Virginia-252C-2520Concludes-2520Va.-2520House-2520of-2520Delegates-2520Lacks-2520Standing-2520to-2520Pursue-2520Challenge.&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=pEZ-vkzgDAke9pEK4Au6nCMftiNs8luH4CzFM4kppU0&e=>
>
> Posted in Uncategorized
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__electionlawblog.org_-3Fcat-3D1&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=XMCxIWmTvMBgIgdj7qfbL1XlNv3RUijCIhDu8p8hQCw&e=>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Rick Hasen
>
> Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
>
> UC Irvine School of Law
>
> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
>
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
>
> 949.824.3072 - office
>
> rhasen at law.uci.edu
>
> http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.law.uci.edu_faculty_full-2Dtime_hasen_&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=s-KnLREcuWUR5qVy5dQEgy-jtUifKDZ6SI5vqxBreck&e=>
>
> http://electionlawblog.org
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__electionlawblog.org_&d=DwMGaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v3oz9bpMizgP1T8KwLv3YT-_iypxaOkdtbkRAclgHRk&m=_2J9rzVzu3gPDSXJg5OKMnwid2ezSVNsHzv84W0rd4I&s=i3p78VEhKbm61EUU-rLv8N-L6ObJfAHf6hN9PE5aPkY&e=>
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-- 
Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos
Professor of Law
Herbert and Marjorie Fried Research Scholar
University of Chicago Law School
nsteph at uchicago.edu
(773) 702-4226
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/stephanopoulos
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