"The North/South divide is always just beneath the surface in American politics" - "The problem, from the North's perspective, is the ascension of the South"
The Wilmington Journal
Tense Times For Supreme Court
BY Charles D. Ellison
Of the Philadelphia Tribune
December 29, 2011
Tense Times For Supreme Court
Some excerpts :
As if the Court is brewing up a 21st-century remake of the Civil War, the ugust body of for-life judges have decided to review three of the most volatile cases you could pick to review during a presidential election year.
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Along comes the infamous Arizona state immigration law, technically known as ''S.B. 1070'' for its state legislature designation. Republican Governor Jan Brewer's masterpiece of questionable and virtually unenforceable immigration detainment became the cause of a Latino community already under siege from increased deportations. The law caused a national firestorm over how far authorities could go in seizing illegal immigrants and whether police identification by race was even legal.
After many boycotts, national outrage and Brewer's face on dart boards, Arizona suffered a huge economic setback from S.B. 1070 and became the poster kid for racism in the United States.
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Going further down south in the big state of Texas is where current Republican Governor Rick Perry, R-Texas, also a fledgling GOP primary candidate, pushed an appeal against a lower court which refused to let the state use state and congressional legislative maps drawn by an even lower court. While that court found the new Census-driven maps suspiciously drawn to diminish the influence of Black and Latino voters in the Lone Star state, Perry argued that the judges should have kicked it to the state legislature which is, incidentally, dominated by Republicans.
Observers worry that the High Court is taking on politically and emotionally charged cases during an election year that promises to be as hot as the previous Presidential cycle in 2008. Healthcare, immigration and redistricting also touch on sensitive issues of access, race and more race.
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As could the immigration issue and redistricting. The Arizona immigration law on one hand placed an uncomfortable law enforcement spotlight on the problem of illegal immigration in the southwest United States. But, it also galvanized the awakening of a sleeping Latino political giant that could prove lethal for Republicans - especially depending on which way the legal winds blow on the SCOTUS case.
The Texas redistricting case, one of the few to come before the Court in quite some time, could have the effect of deciding the fate of Black and Latino political power, particularly as populations of color move southward. SCOTUS' review of the case is already causing anxiety amongst civil rights advocates, lawyers and many African-American politicos worried that this is just one new chance, next to the increasing presence of voter ID laws, for Republicans to undermine minority votes typically leaning Democratic.
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"The problem, from the North's perspective, is the ascension of the South. It's growing at a much faster clip and growing in political clout too. The congressional seats lost by Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York invariably end up in Georgia, Texas or North Carolina. Texas is gaining four new seats, and while that will make it harder for Democrats to retake the House, it shouldn't affect the presidential contest.
King argues that while the tensions are there they may not be decisive. Obama could lose the 55 Electoral College votes he won in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia and still win the election. What will be decisive are national issues like the economy, health care reform, and immigration. For instance, while Americans want a strong border they don't prefer the antics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio or the explicit discrimination of Alabama's anti-immigration efforts.
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