Don't let judicial redistricting create a Roy Moore for NC
Published February 2, 2018
Editorial by Eric Edgerton, printed in Asheville Citizen-Times, February 1, 2018
In a Jan 28. article concerning the potential redrawing of judicial districts across North Carolina, the Citizen Times noted the fundamentally unfair impact such redistricting would have on Buncombe County’s currently elected judges.
While there is nothing wrong with pointing out the unfairness to each individual judge, that focus misses the more insidious consequences of the proposed redistricting. At bottom, the GOP’s redistricting proposal is an attempt to place judicial power in the hands of a population whose social views and prejudices have been rejected by the majority of modern society.
As proposed, the redrawn judicial districts would carve a new district out of the northern and western portions of Buncombe County, leaving Asheville and its suburbs in another. By drawing judicial districts in this manner, state legislators can ensure that some of Buncombe County’s judges will be elected by rural voters who tend to hold more socially regressive views than those voters residing in urban areas. The potential harm in giving rural voters a disproportionate level of influence over the judiciary cannot be overstated.
An example of what can happen when power over the judiciary is vested in a less educated, more regressive segment of society may be found in Alabama. There, a prominent judge openly wrote that he believes homosexuality to be “an inherent evil against which children must be protected,” and directed probate judges in his state not to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples. As justification for this disregard of the law, that judge stated that “God is the only source of our law, liberty and government.” While the majority of American society would be able to easily identify that individual, Roy Moore, as an unqualified bigot, the conservative, rural population of Alabama twice elected him to be the Chief Justice of their Supreme Court, and nearly elected him to the U.S. Senate.
To be clear, there is no guarantee that the GOP’s proposed redistricting will result in the election of socially regressive bigots; by crafting a district whose population looks more like that of Alabama than Buncombe County as a whole, however, the odds are greatly increased.
The reasoning behind this redistricting effort is abundantly clear: it represents one of the only possible means of allowing those with regressive social views to hold power in a society that is rapidly leaving them behind. Since 1991, the percentage of Americans who report that they are not affiliated with any religion has risen from six to twenty-four percent. Over that same time period, the percentage of adult Americans with college degrees has risen to 33.4 percent, up from about twenty percent in the early 1990s.
Those trends do not bode well for the political viability of a judge who would discriminate against social minorities based on his interpretation of his personal religion.
In short, the GOP’s judicial redistricting effort is an attempt to resist the changes that come with an increasingly educated and secular society. If passed, it would greatly increase the odds that a genuinely bigoted individual, а la Roy Moore, could be placed in a position of authority over all Buncombe County residents.
Citizens alarmed by this possibility should speak up, and oppose the GOP’s misguided attempt to redraw our state’s judicial districts.
Eric Edgerton is a graduate of the George Washington University School of Law and a practicing attorney in Asheville.
February 2, 2018 at 3:54 pm
Johnny Hiott says:
Gee wiz ! I never realized that one's personal beliefs of Scripture and Christian lifestyles made them into "socially regressive bigots". I personally welcome the less educated social regressive s who have moral and Godly standards. Who have not been brainwashed by communist professors. This nation was getting along just fine until the liberals/progressives gained power and have since done everything possible to destroy anything Godly within this nation and this state. Their tactics are simple : Destroy anyone who does not agree with their agenda of remaking this nation into another of their failed socialist utopias. Can anyone remember the destruction of Anita Bryant for standing up for her Christian beliefs against the homosexuals illegal lifestyles ? No matter what tactics these progressive morons use Right is still right and wrong is still wrong. For my part in reality there should be no difference in any judge anywhere in the nation as they are all charged with applying the law equally to all. The problem with progressives is they just make it up as they go regardless of what it truly is. If progressives within this nation represent anything it is Satan and his demoralizing, degrading, despicable perversions.
February 5, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Norm Kelly says:
So, first I was a 'deplorable'.
Now I'm 'socially regressive'.
It's interesting how easily demons, libs, socialists use derogatory terms to define people who don't agree with them. This type of speech comes from those who consider themselves 'open minded', 'compassionate', and having a large tent. Of course, what typical libs/socialists/demons/media allies usually mean by 'large tent' is that if you agree with them, you are welcome. If you disagree with them, you are not only removed (forcibly if necessary) from the tent, but you are labeled. Funny how the average liberal, darn-near-socialist, demon pol hates it when they are referred to as 'liberal', never hesitates to use labels against those who see life differently. Free speech, individual thought, conservative thought, traditional thought, isn't just 'bad' anymore, it's regressive, hateful, deplorable, and probably racist and sexist as well. I'd have to ask my local lib friends if there are any other useful terms to define me & my type.
How does anyone compromise, get along with people who demonstrate such closed minds?
If ANY conservative, or white guy, or Republican said anything as ignorant and inflammatory as Eric did in this editorial, that person would be fired from their job, possibly sued, and definitely NOT allowed to show up on ANY college campus.
I'm so glad to be 'deplorable', 'socially regressive', and 'close minded'. Cuz if I had to be like Eric and his ilk, I'd consider removing myself from society, and at least removing myself from polite public.
Eric, shame on you and your type!
