Gerrymanderingto kill a mocking bird essays

Gerrymanderingto kill a mocking bird essays GOMILLION ET AL. v. LIGHTFOOT, MAYOR OF TUSKEGEE, ET AL. The unprecedented Gomillion v. Lightfoot came to the Supreme Court because the borders of Tuskegee, Alabama were redrawn. They went from a square shape to an irregular one to exclude black neighborhoods, on the outer edges of the city, violating the 15th Amendment, denying them a vote because of race. This practice is also known as racial gerrymandering. On October 18 and 19 of 1960 this case was argued. The decision was made on November 14, 1960. The case was pulled up from the Fifth Circuit of Appellate Courts. The Plaintiff, the African American citizens of Tuskegee, Alabama were accusing the Mayor of Tuskegee, Alabama, Lightfoot, denying constitutional rights to the citizens. The case was ruled on just after another very important racial case, Barker v. Carr. This case furthered the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The Supreme Court of the United States reversed the ruling from the Fifth Circuit of Appellate Courts. The Appellate Court ruled that the State could look out for its best interest. The court applied this past ruling from other cases to rule that the municipality could look out for its best interest. The Supreme Court, however, felt that the means do not justify the ends. Using a Constitutional procedure to achieve an Unconstitutional result is unconstitutional. Whittaker, wrote a concurring opinion agreeing that the border move was Unconstitutional, but under the fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause because the state was redrawing borders to the black citizen's detriment. He felt that voting was not denied because of race. In fact, border changes occur all the time and the blacks still had a right to vote for any candidate or position that falls in their area. He felt that the re-bordering was a segregation attempt illegal under the prece ...