In her Dec. 11 opinion for Hamilton and Griffin on Rights, Janai Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), asks and answers what is this country’s theory of democracy?
Nothing is sacred in politics; but certain things should be sacred in a democracy. The Supreme Court argument in Evenwel v. Abbott this past Wednesday proved that not even the well-worn principle of one person-one vote established half a century ago is beyond scrutiny and manipulation. What Evenwel (pronounced “even-well”) seeks to advance is an uneven allocation of power that will not serve our nation well. The case challenges the fundamental assumption that all people count in our representative democracy, not just persons eligible to vote. If successful, the case would upend the national practice of counting all persons for purposes of drawing state legislative districts and eviscerate the principle of equal representation
Read the full opinion here.
