Is the Supreme Court Decision on Gerrymandering a Victory for Voting Rights?

FEATURING DAVID DALEY – A 5-4 decision by the nation’s highest court this week could have major implications for how congressional districts are drawn, and by extension how elections play out. Liberal Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Stephen Breyer, were joined by conservative justice Clarence Thomas in striking down two “gerrymandered” districts in North Carolina.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina claimed that they were attempting to be consistent with Voting Rights Act in lumping black voters into odd shaped districts. But opponents made the case that in fact districts were being drawn to minimize the number of seats Democrats could win in the state.

Will this ruling impact the GOP’s blatant and aggressive gerrymandering practices?

David Daley, editor-in-chief of Salon, Digital Media Fellow for the Wilson Center for Humanities and the Arts, and the Grady School of Journalism and the University of Georgia, author of the new book, Rat F**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy.