On the second-to-last day of last year, a three-judge panel at federal court in Chicago ruled that the latest comedy on political redistricting, starring top Illinois Democrats, did not violate the voting rights of racial minorities because it was clearly done for no other reason but partisan political advantage.
Ah, well, that’s okay then. Corruption is rampant, institutionalized, and self-perpetuating, and we evidently just can’t get enough of this laugh-til-you-cry entertainment in Illinois!
“Gov. Pritzker and his Democratic allies have made their allegiance clear,” said Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie in response to the court’s ruling. “They are more committed to protecting the same political insiders who have been wrecking our state for decades than defending voting rights in Illinois.”
In the meantime, Republicans are still challenging a rival sitcom, the redistricted St. Clair County map designed to keep local Democrats in power for another 10 years.
Plaintiffs recently survived the county’s motion to dismiss. Their claims are before what is believed to be a serious Southern District of Illinois court on the racial discrimination reality of Belleville politics, which is this:
St. Clair County’s Black population represents one-third of the total. Therefore, a fair map would allow for the election of nine (of 28) Black county board members. Yet, the mostly White board adopted a map that reduces the number of Black representatives from six to four, half what it should be.
While flagrant gerrymandering apparently is A-OK with entrenched politicians (of course it is, that’s why they’re entrenched) and some courts (entrenching politicians is ‘controversial’ but not unconstitutional, they say) – what about the basic voting rights of one-third of the population in St. Clair County?
Supposedly, it’s the single-most pressing issue facing our nation since the Build Back Better belly flop.
Before the holidays, President Biden said of voting rights, “There’s nothing domestically more important.”
Political reality suggests that a Biden DOJ will not play a leading role in delivering justice here, where it’s really needed. But for now there’s still hope that a court will.