A Supreme Court decision last week ensures Washington state’s bipartisan process for shaping its congressional districts will remain intact.

In the majority of U.S. states, state legislatures are responsible for redistricting and other election laws, but they do not hold the power without checks and balances . Concerns over political parties gerrymandering congressional districts when they have majority control have led some states to instate independent commissions to oversee elections redistricting.

In a 6-3 landmark decision, the court upheld that state legislatures are not the sole entities vested to make elections rules or draw congressional election maps.

The ruling concerned the “independent state legislature” theory, an interpretation of the Supreme Court’s Elections Clause that suggests the law forbids any nonlegislature government entities, including independent commissions, governors or courts, to alter a legislature’s actions on federal elections.

The court said state legislatures must operate under the same rules as all other government agencies, said Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute for Public Policy and Publichttps://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/jun/27/us-supreme-court-ruling-upholds-bipartisan-electio/ Service at Washington State University. This means any election law made by a state legislature is subject to judicial review by both state and federal courts.

“If they ruled opposite, it would reverse 200 years of our understanding,” Clayton said. “It would be shocking for the court to strip itself of the authority to review legislative decisions made in states.”

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Spokesman-Review

The case that bankrupted the Aryan Nations nearly 25 years ago wasn’t just about racism. It wasn’t just about taking down a white supremacist group.

It was a battle of good versus evil, and good won.

“This was a major turning point in culture,” Norm Gissel told about 60 people during a Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations luncheon at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn on Thursday.

It was in 1998 when an Idaho First Judicial District jury awarded $6.3 million to Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason Keenan, against the Aryan Nations and their security guards that bankrupted the neo-Nazi group.

Gissel was part of the legal team that achieved that victory.

Cornell Clayton, a Rhodes Scholar and Washington State University political science professor, shared his views on extremism in a historical perspective. He said division in government has long been part of America.

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Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press

Gaby Hernandez thought college wasn’t possible for her. She immigrated to the United States at 17, and though she graduated from high school in Bridgeport, Washington, her path led to motherhood and family life.

As her three kids grew, she and her husband encouraged their oldest child, daughter Sinai Espinoza Hernandez, to consider college. To that end, the family visited a community college. Something clicked, Gaby said. Her kids were older and she had been thinking about getting a job outside the home. Instead, she wondered, “maybe there’s something of college for me?”

Both mother and daughter found what they needed at Washington State University, with transfer options and online education. The result: They graduated together in the commencement ceremony in Spokane on May 5.

Gaby, a registered nurse, received her bachelor of science in nursing. Sinai graduated with a bachelor of arts in political science.

Both credit each other and their family for helping them reach their goals.

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WSU Insider

Cornell Clayton, director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, is helping developing democracies thrive.

Recipient of a Fulbright Senior Specialist award for a three-week visit to Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, Clayton held a series of lectures for graduate and undergraduate students focusing on contemporary American politics, constitutional law and politics, and social science methodology. He also met individually with junior faculty to help advise on their research and publication efforts.

“Whenever one teaches students in other countries it always brings fresh perspective to familiar ideas and concepts,” said Clayton, the Claudius and Mary Johnson distinguished professor of political science at WSU. “Working with scholars and judges who encounter similar issues in this central European region will enrich my research and teaching about courts and justice.”

In a separate series of events funded by the U.S. State Department, Clayton and David Campbell, senior U.S. district judge for Arizona and chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Committee on International Judicial Relations, conducted workshops for Slovakian judges and law professors.

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WSU Insider