Column: Cory Booker should be ashamed of himself
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I wish “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker had asked Sen. Cory Booker if he’s qualified to represent New Jersey given that nearly 9 out of 10 of his constituents are not Black.
I should probably back up.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in Callais vs. Louisiana that the state’s newest congressional map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Here’s a simplified recap. After the 2020 census, Louisiana drew a congressional map that included just one “majority-minority” district. Some Black voters sued, arguing that Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act required a second majority-minority district, because a third of Louisiana’s population is Black, and one district represented only a sixth of the state’s congressional representation. A federal judge agreed, ordering the state to redraw the map, or the court would do it for them. Louisiana tried again, producing a second majority-Black district.
This triggered a lawsuit from non-Black voters, alleging that the new map violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, because Louisiana had over-relied on race to draw it. A three-judge federal court agreed. The Supreme Court affirmed that ruling.
The legal predicament is that the Voting Rights Act and........
