People…pay attention! There is a Texas case being decided today by the United States Supreme Court that could change the way that legislative districts are formed.

Basically states currently draw lines for their legislative districts based on equality of total population (one person, one vote), not eligible or registered voters. A Texas lawsuit says that this is unconstitutional and the metric used to draw district lines should be eligible voters. In this political climate where voter suppression has re-emerged in recent years, with states employing creative illegal tricks, everyone should be paying attention to the outcome of this case.

How do you know who is an eligible voter? By counting those who are registered? What about 18th birthdays, deaths, children, immigrants?

An interesting perspective.

What would redefining the one person, one vote standard mean for our democratic principles? Would it mean that representatives need not respond to or seek out the opinion of those who are not counted in the drawing of their districts?

If those who can’t vote don’t count, then perhaps some elected officials might also think they don’t need to represent those who are eligible but choose not to vote or maybe those who don’t vote for them? This could be a slippery slope.