{"id":58588,"date":"2023-06-20T13:33:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T20:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=58588"},"modified":"2023-06-20T13:33:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T20:33:18","slug":"there-is-power-in-representation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=58588","title":{"rendered":"There is Power in Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_66 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_66\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span><a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/author\/peter-white\/\">Peter White<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_67 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_67\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2023-06-20T11:16:14-07:00\">Jun 20, 2023<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_68 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_68\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Alabama must redraw its congressional maps to create one more majority-black voting district. The 5-4 Allen v Milligan decision will impact about 30 redistricting lawsuits in ten states where gerrymanders diluted the political power of minority voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_69 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_69\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"entry-thumb td-animation-stack-type0-2\" title=\"unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/unseen-histories-9RbdjQ3nCEk-unsplash-scaled-e1687284873253-1068x712.jpg 1068w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">A scene from the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington. (Unseen Histories photo via Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_70 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_70\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Evan Milligan got news of the June 8 SCOTUS decision ordering Alabama to redraw its congressional maps while attending\u00a0a workshop on the Holocaust in a Berlin church. It was the same church where Martin Luther King famously delivered a sermon in 1964.<\/p>\n<p>After years of demoralizing roll backs on voting rights, Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the case, said he was first stunned, then overjoyed to hear the news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were many people who said our case was not going to prevail and it was a long shot. Lots of things are long shots,\u201d Milligan told reporters during a June 16 EMS news briefing. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t take the shot.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Race Neutral Maps<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget2\" title=\"How an Originalist Interpretation of the Constitution Helped Win New Election Maps in Alabama\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5_bqjmaR9h8?feature=oembed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Evan Milligan, lead plaintiff in the case Allen v Milligan and Executive Director of Alabama Forward<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In\u00a0<em>Allen v Milligan<\/em>, Alabama argued that election maps must be race neutral. But Alabama\u2019s maps \u2013 which a lower court initially rejected \u2013 were nothing if not race conscious. Alabama\u2019s Republican lawmakers packed one district with African Americans and spread others from Alabama\u2019s \u201cBlack Belt\u201d across three different districts, thereby diluting the Black vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf all the places to receive this news,\u201d Milligan, Executive Director of the voting rights advocacy non-profit Alabama Forward,\u00a0told the news site Alabama.com. \u201cI broke down in tears\u201d thinking about the legacy this means for my dad.\u201d Milligan\u2019s father, Bill, died in 2021 before the case was argued at the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>The 5-4 decision now means Alabama will have to redraw its electoral maps. The ruling also means that Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina \u2013 all of which have similarly gerrymandered maps in place \u2013 may have to redraw their maps, too.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Too Late to Undo Damage\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), said he was surprised by the ruling, which upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, given that SCOTUS overturned longstanding legal precedent when it struck down\u00a0<em>Roe v Wade<\/em>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n<p>He also pointed out that the June 8 decision comes too late to undo the damage done by gerrymandered maps in a slew of states that were used during the 2022 midterms, effectively denying Black voters and voters of color representation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat clearly determined at least one seat in the House of Representatives,\u201d Saenz said.<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Naifeh manages the Redistricting Project at the NAACP Legal Defense &amp; Educational Fund (LDF). He argued the Milligan case in District Court and was involved in the Supreme Court proceedings.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Victory Well Beyond Alabama<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt is a victory that we have preserved Section 2 and this case has impacts well beyond Alabama,\u201d Naifeh said.<\/p>\n<p>Since the 1980s the Supreme Court has used a race-conscious framework in VRA Section 2 cases. And it used that standard to decide\u00a0<em>Allen v Milligan.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget4\" title=\"How Alabama Tried to Diminish  Black Voting Power\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cOunNsfNQoI?feature=oembed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Stuart Naifeh manages the Redistricting Project at the NAACP Legal Defense &amp; Educational Fund (LDF)<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAlabama in this case had argued that the framework should be thrown out,\u201d explained Naifeh, and \u201cthat a new framework should be adopted \u2013 which they called \u2018race neutral.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Essentially, he continued, the state argued \u201cthat you cannot consider race when you\u2019re trying to remedy racial discrimination. So, it is kind of a nonsense proposition that race can\u2019t be considered to remedy racial discrimination, but that is what Alabama was advocating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And while Naifeh celebrated the ruling, he also reminded reporters that ultimately its effect is to uphold the status quo on voting rights, which he said are in need of reform.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Native Americans<\/h2>\n<p>Jacqueline De Leon is staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund (NARF), the nation\u2019s largest and oldest nonprofit, dedicated to advancing the rights of Native Americans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt NARF, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief after Milligan,\u201d De Leon says.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs built an \u201cundeniable record\u201d in the case to uphold Section 2 of the VRA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope a small part of that was lifting up how Native American communities also continue to have their votes diluted through racial gerrymanders,\u201d De Leon said.<\/p>\n<p>NARF submitted an amicus brief in Milligan that outlined contemporary examples of racial discrimination in native communities; it gave lengthy descriptions out of South Dakota, North Dakota, and New Mexico where NARF won voter dilution cases during the last decade.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget6\" title=\"In North Dakota, Voting Rights Advocates Challenge a Map that Dilutes the Native American Vote\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k6reatqOipE?feature=oembed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Jacqueline De Leon is staff attorney at Native American Rights Fund (NARF)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In its brief, Alabama tried to make it seem as if at-large districts, where seats are allocated based on the top vote-getters, no longer existed. But in Indian Country that\u2019s how Native Americans are disenfranchised, De Leon explained.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">North Dakota<\/h2>\n<p>For example, if a population is 40% native, and could reasonably expect to win two out of five seats on the county commission, the method of at-large elections meant that the Indian candidates were never chosen, and that all five seats ended up going to people in the white border towns, adjacent to the native American reservations. That violates the VRA, De Leon noted.<\/p>\n<p>NARF brought a successful voting rights case during the Trump administration involving an at-large method of election that diluted native votes. The case was a school board election in Chamberlain, South Dakota, where an at-large election denied native representation on the board.<\/p>\n<p>In Lyman County, South Dakota, the county admitted the election for County Commissioner violated the VRA, but they refused to implement a remedial plan for two years. So NARF sued. Benson County, North Dakota, was out of compliance with a consent decree for 10 years so NARF sued them and reached another consent decree.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can be assured we will be monitoring very closely,\u201d De Leon stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, De Leon is waiting \u201cwith bated breath\u201d on the outcome of a trial she just finished in North Dakota.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were challenging the state\u2019s legislative map under Section 2,\u201d said De Leon. The Milligan decision could decide it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA super majority of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians were packed into a single house subdistrict and other Turtle Mountain citizens were cracked into other house subdistricts and Spirit Lake into another house district.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>De Leon says because of those gerrymanders, representation goes down from two possible house seats to just one. That is just what happened in Alabama.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ByPeter White Jun 20, 2023 Alabama&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58589,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58588\/revisions\/58589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}