When gerrymandering started to be control by the racial make up in the districts, that was a turning point in legalizing election fraud.
In the 1993 decision Shaw vs. Hunt, the U.S Supreme Court found that North Carolina's legislature had violated the Constitution by using race as the predominant factor in drawing its 12th Congressional District's boundaries in 1992. But in Hunt vs. Cromartie (1999), the Court found that a redrawn 12th was constitutional because it was legal partisan gerrymandering -- designed to create a safe Democratic seat -- rather than illegal racial gerrymandering. (Wikimedia Commons)
In 2001, with Democrats in control of Illinois redistricting, then-state Senator Barack Obama was apparently able to reshape his district to his own specifications. As Ryan Lizza detailed in The New Yorker, that included drawing in wealthy supporters from Chicago’s Gold Coast. The new redistricting maintained Obama’s Hyde Park base, then lunged northward along the lakefront and toward downtown. As in Obama’s previous district, African-Americans retained a majority, and the map contained some of the poorest sections of Chicago, but the new district was whiter, more prosperous, more Jewish, less blue-collar, and better educated. (Associated Press)
In the 1993 decision Shaw vs. Hunt, the U.S Supreme Court found that North Carolina's legislature had violated the Constitution by using race as the predominant factor in drawing its 12th Congressional District's boundaries in 1992. But in Hunt vs. Cromartie (1999), the Court found that a redrawn 12th was constitutional because it was legal partisan gerrymandering -- designed to create a safe Democratic seat -- rather than illegal racial gerrymandering. (Wikimedia Commons)
In 2001, with Democrats in control of Illinois redistricting, then-state Senator Barack Obama was apparently able to reshape his district to his own specifications. As Ryan Lizza detailed in The New Yorker, that included drawing in wealthy supporters from Chicago’s Gold Coast. The new redistricting maintained Obama’s Hyde Park base, then lunged northward along the lakefront and toward downtown. As in Obama’s previous district, African-Americans retained a majority, and the map contained some of the poorest sections of Chicago, but the new district was whiter, more prosperous, more Jewish, less blue-collar, and better educated. (Associated Press)