Mistaken Identity

by Bybee, Keith J.

• ISBN13: 9780691017297
• ISBN10: 0691017298
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-09-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Is it ever legitimate to redraw electoral districts on the basis of race? In its long struggle with this question, the U.S. Supreme Court has treated race-conscious redistricting either as a requirement of political fairness or as an exercise in corrosive racial quotas. Cutting through these contradictory positions, Keith Bybee examines the theoretical foundations of the Court's decisions and the ideological controversy those decisions have engendered. He uncovers erroneous assumptions about political identity on both sides of the debate and formulates new terms on which minority representation can be pursued.As Bybee shows, the Court has for the last twenty years encouraged a division between individualist and group concepts of political identity. He demonstrates convincingly that both individualist and group proponents share the misguided notion that political identity is formed prior to and apart from politics itself. According to Bybee, this "mistaken identity" should be abandoned for a more flexible, politically informed understanding of who the "people" really are. Thus, a misdirected debate will be replaced by a more considered discussion in which the people can speak for themselves, even as the Court speaks on their behalf. Engaged in the politics of minority representation, the Court will be able to help citizens articulate and achieve more fruitful forms of political community.

Author Biography

Keith J. Bybee holds the Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
INTRODUCTION	3	(9)
CHAPTER ONE The Voting Rights Act and the Struggle for Meaningful Political Membership	12	(18)
CHAPTER TWO The Supreme Court and Representation: Building an Analytical Framework	30	(21)
CHAPTER THREE Sound and Fury: Identifying the Role of Political Identity in the Public Debate	51	(19)
CHAPTER FOUR The Early Cases	70	(28)
CHAPTER FIVE The Later Cases: The Polarization of Judicial Debate	98	(47)
CHAPTER SIX The Possibilities of Legislative Learning	145	(28)
APPENDIX Table of Cases	173	(2)
Reference List	175	(16)
Index	191