Supreme Court Case on North Carolina Redistricting

               In 2014, a North Carolina Supreme Court Case came to a controversial end.  The Supreme Court voted that state legislators did not consider race too heavily when drawing and declaring the district lines, in which many people considered a bad race-based case of gerrymandering.  The Republicans secured 10 of the 13 congressional seats from North Carolina after their re-drawing of the district lines in North Carolina.  The case was taken to the Supreme Court on grounds that the Republicans aimed to draw lines in order to make sure minorities’ opinion could be less powerful. 

                

               The Supreme Court made a decision recently based on the recent outcomes of another case, Alabama Legislative Black Caucus vs. Alabama.  This case also concerned legislators drawing voting lines to diminish the power of the black and minority votes in Alabama.  The case overturned a ruling by a lower court saying that the drawing of the district lines was “legally erroneous”.  This means that the court agreed that the act was wrong but it was legal the way in which they performed the act.  The current Supreme Court voted that the North Carolina Supreme Court should go back and reconsider the decision based on recent findings in the Alabama case also involving the drawing of district lines involving race. 

                The decision to give the power back to a lower court was a very conservative decision to make it possible for them to not make a true decision on it.  It was a clear example of judicial restraint as the court did not go out and change anything.  The courts could have made an example of the North Carolina legislative lines and made sure nobody else would do it, but instead they made a decision for it to be reexamined by a lower court.  Also, the court really did not use strict or loose constructionist methods when making this decision, they just decided whether or not they wanted to vote on it.  No constitutional rights or privileges were impacted or taken into consideration through this process to get to the decision.  The Supreme Court made a smart decision to put the power in the lower courts in a lower courts hands in order to move on to other cases like the cases on gay rights that are currently circulating through the highest court in America.       

Sources:

http://www.wral.com/supreme-court-orders-review-of-north-carolina-redistricting/14593190/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/20/supreme-court-redistricting-_n_7100122.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-revives-challenge-to-north-carolina-redistricting-1429541094

The Iran Nuclear Deal

          President Obama is currently negotiating with the United Nations concerning the current situation in Iran and if the Iran nuclear deal should pass or not.  Basically, the 6 strongest governments in the country are deciding whether or not Iran is allowed to have a nuclear program.  Obama does not need Congress support for the decision he is going to make on the issue, but he is looking for help from Congress on the issue.  Politicians across the country believe that Congress should have a bigger say on this huge issue and should vote on what they believe should happen with Iran.  Negotiations are taking place on a case in which Congress can decide what the punishment against Iran would be if they did not follow the rules of the agreement.  The Obama Administration has been pushing hard for the support from Congress and the general public on coming to a peaceful deal with Iran instead of the use of military force to get our way.  Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey stated that he believes Congress should have to review any nuclear deal that could be made with Iran. 

President Obama and Hassan Rouhani, current President of Iran.

          John Boehner, the current Speaker of the House, believes that the United Nations will have a very hard time coming up with a mutual agreement on what to do with the oil powerhouse and growing nuclear threat Iran.  Boehner stated that if the current nuclear deal with Iran fails or falls apart, then the US Congress will be quick to apply new sanctions to limit the power of the Iranian government.  He also came out saying that if the US would have never loosened the old sanctions on Iran, then this current Iran nuclear deal and the situation with Iran would have never happened.  Congress and America in a whole is in a bit of a pickle because they need to come to an agreement with Iran in order to keep our country and many other countries safe from the nuclear threats that Iran poses.  The only other option if an agreement cannot be figured out, would be to take force to Iran and physically force a shutdown of the Iranian nuclear program.  This would be a lot of bombing and troops that would most likely come off as controversial in America, noting how America has reacted to past military expenditures in the Middle East.  This deal could have serious implications on our current military standing, economical trade and oil trade standings, and the deal will be a very serious issue in the upcoming election.  Many debates will take place questioning whether it is a good idea to bomb Iran and use force to destroy their nuclear program or if a peaceful agreement is the way to go, even if the Iranian leadership is a little shaky and hard to trust.   

Sources:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/03/29/boehner-expresses-doubts-about-reaching-nuke-deal-with-iran-vows-sanctions-will/

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/iran-nuclear-deal-congress-oversight/2015/03/30/id/635257/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-29/menendez-says-congress-must-review-any-nuclear-deal-with-iran-i7ummog8