VOA慢速英语--美国最高法院就选举作出两项重要裁决

US Supreme¹ Court Makes Two Important Rulings on Elections

The United States Supreme Court issued two rulings Thursday that will affect how Americans elect public officials for some time.

In one ruling, a majority of justices said federal courts cannot block voting maps drawn² by the state lawmakers to benefit their own political party. The process is known as gerrymandering.

In the other ruling, the court temporarily stopped the Trump³ government’s effort to add a citizenship⁴ question to the 2020 census⁵.

Gerrymandering

The justices ruled by a 5-4 vote on Thursday that claims of partisan⁶ gerrymandering do not belong in federal court. The court’s conservative majority says the issue is a political dispute, not a legal one. They believe voters and elected officials should decide how to settle it.

The court rejected challenges to two congressional voting maps. One was drawn by Republicans in North Carolina. The other was drawn by Democrats⁷ in Maryland.

In North Carolina, a lower court had ruled the state’s Republican legislature drew election maps to increase the power of Republican voters and to reduce the power of Democratic ones. In Maryland, Democrats changed the map seeking to win in an area that had been represented by a Republican for 20 years.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. He said that voting maps drawn by the states “are highly partisan by any measure.” But he said federal courts are the wrong place to settle these disputes.

Roberts added that a majority of justices found that “partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.”

Justice Elena Kagan disagreed with the ruling. She wrote for the four liberal justices in the minority. Kagan said that, “for the first time ever, this court refuses to” fix a constitutional violation⁸ because it thinks doing so is not part of its job." Kagan added that gerrymandering harms the American system of government.

Lower federal courts have decided⁹ that voting maps drawn for partisan gains in five states – including Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin – went too far. In some cases, the states were ordered to re-draw the maps. The Supreme Court’s ruling overturns those decisions.

Critics fear the Supreme Court’s ruling could invite states under one party’s control to draw new maps for political gain. However, those who want to limit gerrymandering could still challenge highly partisan maps in state courts. One such case is already in a North Carolina state court.

Citizenship question and the census

Chief Justice Roberts was also the deciding vote to stop the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Roberts sided with the court’s four liberal justices in the decision. He said the Commerce Department’s explanation for wanting to add the question was “more of a distraction¹⁰” than an explanation. The department claimed that the question is needed to improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

Writing for the majority, Roberts spoke¹¹ against “accepting contrived¹² reasons.” He said that if the court’s job is to be meaningful, “it must demand something better than the explanation offered for the action taken in this case.”

He added a lower court judge was right to send the issue back to the Commerce Department for a better explanation.

Justice Clarence Thomas, however, said including the citizenship question was within the Commerce Department’s authority. He wrote, “For the first time ever, the court” does not permit a government office to take an action because it does not believe the officials were honest about their reasons. Otherwise, Thomas went on, their reasons were acceptable.

The U.S. Constitution requires a census every 10 years to count the nation’s population. The result will then be used to divide federal money and decide the number of seats each state gets in the House of Representatives.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross wants to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Ross said the Justice Department had requested the citizenship question in order to protect minorities’ ability to vote.

But critics argue the citizenship question aims to discourage minorities, who often support Democrats, from filling out census forms. The Census Bureau’s own experts have also predicted that millions of Hispanics and immigrants would go uncounted if the census asked everyone if he or she is an American citizen.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in late April. But challengers say new evidence shows the citizenship question is part of a larger Republican effort to expand political power.

The new evidence came from the files of Thomas Hofeller, a Republican expert in gerrymandering. After Hofeller’s death, his daughter found that he had urged the Trump government to add a citizenship question to the census. She also found that he wrote part of the request from the Justice Department letter claiming the question was needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act.

I'm Caty Weaver¹³.

And I'm Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

partisan - adj. strongly supporting a particular leader, group, or cause

distraction - n. something that prevents you from giving your full attention to something else

contrived - adj. having an unnatural¹⁴ or false appearance or quality

challenge - n. an action, statement, etc., that is against something?

draw - v. to make (a picture, image, etc.) by making lines on a surface

distraction - n. something that makes it difficult to think or pay attention

authority - n. the power to give orders or make decisions?

discourage - v. to try to make people not want to do (something)

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

5 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

6 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 contrived   

adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的

参考例句：

• There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
• The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。

13 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

14 unnatural   

adj.不自然的；反常的

参考例句：

• Did her behaviour seem unnatural in any way?她有任何反常表现吗？
• She has an unnatural smile on her face.她脸上挂着做作的微笑。