Thursday, August 25, 2016

Time for a new constitution: State Supreme Court rules against Fair Map amendment

Tattered Illinois flag
The Democratic Party and its labor arm, the public-sector unions, have destroyed Illinois.

Over a half-million Illinoisans signed a petition to amend the constitution so the politicians don't draw the boundaries for state legislative districts. Right now politicians choose their voters--not the other away around.

But Democratic Supreme Court justices sided with the bosses over the people who are trying to save a sinking ship.

Illinois' population is declining and it has the worst credit rating of the fifty states, largely because of bribes disguised as overly-generous pensions to members of those public-sector unions.

From the Chicago Tribune:
An Illinois Supreme Court divided along party lines on Thursday kept off the November ballot a referendum question asking voters whether the state constitution should be amended to take much of the politics out of drawing House and Senate district boundaries.

Democratic justices on the state's high court agreed with a Cook County judge's finding that the proposal did not fit a narrow legal window for a petition-driven initiative to change the Illinois Constitution. Republican justices disagreed, filing separate dissenting opinions.

The 4-3 ruling is a win for Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who opposed the referendum, suggesting it would hurt protections on ensuring minority representation. The speaker has maintained his hold at the Capitol for more than three decades in part because he's had the power to draw the boundaries of legislative districts, and a longtime Madigan ally was the attorney for People's Map, which sued.
Note how Boss Madigan uses the favorite crutch of he Democrats, race-baiting, to justify his need to keep his grip on power.

Illinois needs a new constitution. Twelve years is a long time but the ballot question of whether the Land of Lincoln should hold another constitutional convention will be on the ballot in 2028.

Don't mourn, organize.

The Illinois Republican Party's spokesman Steven Yaffe issued this statement:
The only thing standing in the way of political reform is Mike Madigan. Madigan and his allies sued to stop citizen-led ballot initiatives for Independent Maps and term limits, and the Speaker has used his power to stop both from passing or being voted on in Springfield. Madigan has worked tirelessly against reforms that would threaten his ability to rig Illinois' political system in his favor. Legislators from both parties must reject Madigan's obstructionism and demand reform.

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