From Ashcroft to Larios: Recent Redistricting Lessons From Georgia

In this Article, we explore the impact of a court-ordered and implemented re-crafting of state legislative districts in the state of Georgia. First, we explore the notion of “fairness” in legislative redistricting and identify the factors associated with a “fair” map. We then describe the partisan nature of the 2001 Georgia state legislative redistricting and the political consequences of this most effective gerrymander. We also describe the two legal challenges to the Georgia maps—Georgia v. Ashcroft and Larios v. Cox—and discuss the path of both cases to the U.S. Supreme Court. We then explore the expected and observed consequences of the Court-ordered and implemented redistricting that undid the unconstitutional Georgia gerrymander, and draw conclusions regarding the prospect for how court remedies can affect partisan bias in redistricting plans

The History of Redistricting in Georgia

In his memoirs, Chief Justice Earl Warren singled outthe redistrictingcases as the most significant decisions ofhis tenure on the Court., A review of the changesredistricting introduced in Georgia supports Warren\u27sassessment. Not only have the obligations to equalizepopulations across districts and to do so in a racially fairmanner transformed the makeup of the state\u27s collegialbodies, Georgia has provided the setting for multiple casesthat have defined the requirements to be met whendesigning districts.Other than the very first adjustments that occurred inthe 1960s, changes in Georgia plans had to secureapproval from the federal government pursuant to theVoting Rights Act. Also, the first four decades of theRedistricting Revolution occurred with a Democraticlegislature and governor in place. Not surprisingly, thepartisansin control of redistrictingsought to protect theirown and as that became difficult they employed moreextreme measures.When in the minority, Republicans had no chance toenact plans on their own. Beginning in the 1980s andpeaking a decade later, Republicans joined forces withblack Democrats to devise alternatives to the proposals ofwhite Democrats. The biracial,bipartisancoalition neverhad sufficient numbers to enact its ideas. After strikingout in the legislature,African-Americans appealed to theU.S. Attorney General alleging that the plans enactedwere less favorable to black interests than alternatives offered by the coalition. Every iteration,save for the plansdrawn in the 1960s and 2011, bore the marks of what theDepartment of Justice (DOJ)believed necessary to secureequal treatment of African-Americans. As will becomeclear in the course of this Article, the DOJ\u27s perspectivehas changed over time.This Article is arrangedchronologically and examineseach of the major rounds of redistricting. Aside fromadjusting for population shifts, which remain constant, adifferent concern or theme dominated each round. In the1960s, Georgia and other states were like individuals whohad begun flexing long-ignored muscles as they set aboutadjusting lines that had gone unchanged for decades. Inthe 1970s, as the need for redistricting merged withdemands from the Voting Rights Act, pushback occurredas it did in the many other aspects of racial interactionasthe nation finally began to take seriously its commitmentto equality. A decade later, Georgia encountered a DOJthat had precise quantitative goals for what wasnecessary to provide African-Americans an opportunity toelect their preferences. In the 1990s, DOJ incorporatedSection 2 of the Voting Rights Act into its preclearancereviews and demanded that Georgia enhance the numberof majority-black districts and that it maximize the blackpercentage in those districts. The turn of the new centuryfound the generations-longDemocratic control of Georgiaslipping away and the majority party pulled out all thestops desperately trying to cling to power. Democraticefforts could not withstand the tide of partisanrealignment and court challenges so that in 2011Republicans sat at the computer terminals andredistrictedGeorgia. Republicans attempted to maximizetheir control over the legislature by devising plans thatmight produce super-majorities with two-thirds of theseats in each chambe

State and local agencies are more effective than the federal government in housing discrimination enforcement

Discrimination by those selling or renting homes is illegal under the 1968 Fair Housing Act (known as Title VIII), but housing discrimination and segregation in the US have not been eliminated. Federal, state, and local agencies are responsible for enforcing Title VIII, so in which part of government is enforcement most effective? In new research which analyses data from the ..

Medium power hydrogen arcjet performance

An experimental investigation was performed to evaluate hydrogen arcjet operating characteristics in the range of 1 to 4 kW. A series of nozzles were operated in modular laboratory thrusters to examine the effects of geometric parameters such as constrictor diameter and nozzle divergence angle. Each nozzle was tested over a range of current and mass flow rates to explore stability and performance. In the range of mass flow rates and power levels tested, specific impulse values between 650 and 1250 sec were obtained at efficiencies between 30 and 40 percent. The performance of the two larger half angle (20, 15 deg) nozzles was similar for each of the two constrictor diameters tested. The nozzles with the smallest half angle (10 deg) were difiicult to operate. A restrike mode of operation was identified and described. Damage in the form of melting was observed in the constrictor region of all the nozzle inserts tested. Arcjet ignition was also difficult in many tests and a glow discharge mode that prevents starting was identified

The SPLASH Survey: Kinematics of Andromeda's Inner Spheroid

The combination of large size, high stellar density, high metallicity, and Sersic surface brightness profile of the spheroidal component of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) within R_proj ~ 20 kpc suggest that it is unlike any subcomponent of the Milky Way. In this work we capitalize on our proximity to and external view of M31 to probe the kinematical properties of this "inner spheroid." We employ a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis of resolved stellar kinematics from Keck/DEIMOS spectra of 5651 red giant branch stars to disentangle M31's inner spheroid from its stellar disk. We measure the mean velocity and dispersion of the spheroid in each of five spatial bins after accounting for a locally cold stellar disk as well as the Giant Southern Stream and associated tidal debris. For the first time, we detect significant spheroid rotation (v_rot ~ 50 km/s) beyond R_proj ~ 5 kpc. The velocity dispersion decreases from about 140 km/s at R_proj = 7 kpc to 120 km/s at R_proj = 14 kpc, consistent to 2 sigma with existing measurements and models. We calculate the probability that a given star is a member of the spheroid and find that the spheroid has a significant presence throughout the spatial extent of our sample. Lastly, we show that the flattening of the spheroid is due to velocity anisotropy in addition to rotation. Though this suggests that the inner spheroid of M31 more closely resembles an elliptical galaxy than a typical spiral galaxy bulge, it should be cautioned that our measurements are much farther out (2 - 14 r_eff) than for the comparison samples.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

The Consolidation of the White Southern Congressional Vote

This article explores the initial desertion and continued realignment of about one-sixth of the white voters in the South who, until 1994, stood by Democratic congressional candidates even as they voted for Republican presidential nominees. Prior to 1994, a sizable share of the white electorate distinguished between Democratic congressional and presidential candidates; since 1994 that distinction has been swept away. In 1992, a majority of white southern voters was casting their ballot for the Democratic House nominee; by 1994, the situation was reversed and 64 percent cast their ballot for the Republican. Virtually all categories of voters increased their support of Republican congressional candidates in 1994 and the following elections further cement GOP congressional support in the South. Subsequent elections are largely exercises in partisanship, as the congressional votes mirror party preferences. Republicans pull nearly all GOP identifiers, most independents, and a sizeable minority of Democratic identifiers. Democrats running for Congress no longer convince voters that they are different from their party’s presidential standard bearers—a group that has consistently been judged unacceptable to overwhelming proportions of the southern white electorate.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Structural and Elite Features in Open Seat and Special U.S. House Elections: Is There a Sexual Bias?

Conventional wisdom long held that there was a bias against women in elections. Subsequent research indicates that men and women who challenge for elective office confront a common barrier: incumbency. In this article we extend our previous research on women in open seat elec tions by examining the performance of women who compete in special elections. Female candidate emergence in special House contests is slightly higher than in regular open seats. Using multivariate regression models, our analysis uncovered no bias against women in special elections. Over all, the performance of women in special elections and open seats indi cates that disruptions of the political status quo by the sudden vacancy creates opportunities that women exploit with effectiveness, although the low level of female candidate emergence limits the growth of descriptive female representation.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo