Republicans Say the First Amendment Protects the Right to Gerrymander

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/michigan-partisan-gerrymander-lawsuit.html?fbclid=IwAR0Le4V-bWI1b2RCknBa_1w-XupdE6KgSx2hH_hMPMaiFlOFrswsx1tm9iI
"Even though the suit is weak, it would be a mistake to assume it will go nowhere. Just two terms ago, Kagan warned that the court was “turning the First Amendment into a sword.” The court has relied on the First Amendment to invalidate aggregate spending limits that prevented any one individual from contributing more than $25,000 to a political party or campaign; it has also used the First Amendment to invalidate limits on corporate spending in political campaigns. These decisions seem to imply that individuals have a First Amendment right to buy political power and voice in government. It is not a stretch to see how that reasoning could be contorted to find that individuals have a First Amendment right to exercise political power in ways that diminishes others’ political power. The Michigan suit is concerning not only because it has parallels to the court’s weaponization of the First Amendment. It is also concerning because the lawsuit has parallels with Republicans’ frontal attack on democracy itself. The Michigan redistricting lawsuit argues that individuals have a First Amendment right to skew elections in ways that make the elections less democratically responsive. The new lawsuit is the latest undemocratic tactic that Republican lawmakers have embraced. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly blocked election security measures that would prevent foreign interference in our elections. Republican state legislatures across the country have enacted voter identification laws that make it harder for people to vote. Republican secretary of state offices have conducted voter purges that eliminated eligible voters from the voting rolls. And in several states where Republicans lost power in recent elections, outgoing legislatures passed laws that stripped their successors of political power, including the ability to appoint state supreme court justices. This lawsuit is not the first time Republicans have sought to get around democracy."