Comments on: SCOTUS affirms power of initiative in redistricting case https://calwatchdog.com/2015/06/29/scotus-affirms-power-of-initiative-in-redistricting-case/ Tue, 30 Jun 2015 21:23:52 +0000 hourly 1 By: G. Rick Marshall https://calwatchdog.com/2015/06/29/scotus-affirms-power-of-initiative-in-redistricting-case/#comment-117158 Tue, 30 Jun 2015 21:23:52 +0000 http://calwatchdog.com/?p=81315#comment-117158 I find it hard to characterize this decision as “a strong endorsement of the initiative process”. A better characterization is from Justice Thomas’ dissent:

The ballot initiative in this case, unlike those that the Court has previously treated so dismissively, was unusually democracy reducing. It did not ask the people to approve a particular
redistricting plan through direct democracy, but instead to
take districting away from the people’s representatives
and give it to an unelected committee, thereby reducing
democratic control over the process in the future. The
Court’s characterization of this as direct democracy at its
best is rather like praising a plebiscite in a “banana republic”
that installs a strongman as President for Life. And
wrapping the analysis in a cloak of federalism does little
to conceal the flaws in the Court’s reasoning.

4 ARIZONA STATE LEGISLATURE v. ARIZONA
INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMM’N

THOMAS, J., dissenting

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