Do You Agree With The US Census Bureau "Region Classifications" (See Map)

[jimrtex]

Blue: Northeast
Red: Midwest
GOLD: South
GREEN: West

They're only used for statistical purposes, and provide continuity for over a century.

If they are going to change every census, there is really no purpose for them.

[jimrtex]

The only region I wouldn't change is the Midwest.

The Middle Atlantic would be extended by Maryland, Delaware and D.C.

The West I wouldn't split into Mountain and Pacific, but rather into North and South.

The Southern region (minus MD, DE and DC) is okay, but I'd section it off into different divisions:
Upper South, Deep South East and Deep South West.

What if the objective were to make the regions equipopulous?

Northeast 55,317,240
Midwest 66,927,001
South 114,555,744
West 71,945,553

Quota: 77,186,384

So we might add KS, NE, SD, and ND to the West.
And add DE, MD, DC, VA, NC, and WV to the Northeast.
And add KY, TN, and AR to the Midwest.

How close is that?

Alternatively we use 5 regions, and begin by splitting the South.

Or what if 9 Supreme Court justices were elected by district, and voters in VI, PR, DC, MP, GU, and AS were permitted to vote?

[jimrtex]

Following jimrtex's suggestion of 9 divisions for SCOTUS seats, this division has an average deviation of 3.6% and a maximum of 7.3% from the quota (PR and other territories are with DC).

3 Democratic
3 Swing
3 Republican

Where would the current justices scramble to?  And would the voters in the the three clearly open seats: Southeast, South Central, and West vote for someone who is clearly an outsider.

[jimrtex]

Following jimrtex's suggestion of 9 divisions for SCOTUS seats, this division has an average deviation of 3.6% and a maximum of 7.3% from the quota (PR and other territories are with DC).

3 Democratic
3 Swing
3 Republican

Where would the current justices scramble to?  And would the voters in the the three clearly open seats: Southeast, South Central, and West vote for someone who is clearly an outsider.

If by 'Southeast' you mean the division containing much of the Deep South and Florida, the obvious answer there is Thomas, who was born and raised in Georgia.

He was an assistant attorney general in Missouri under then Attorney General John Danforth.  When Danforth became a senator, he became a legislative aide.

[jimrtex]

If by 'Southeast' you mean the division containing much of the Deep South and Florida, the obvious answer there is Thomas, who was born and raised in Georgia.

He was an assistant attorney general in Missouri under then Attorney General John Danforth.  When Danforth became a senator, he became a legislative aide.

He was appointed to the Supreme Court bench from Georgia. I looked it up.

He was serving on the DC Court of Appeals when he appointed to the Supreme Court.

[jimrtex]

He was serving on the DC Court of Appeals when he appointed to the Supreme Court.

I know that. His commission still read 'Clarence Thomas, of Georgia, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, vice Thurgood Marshall, retired.'

Is there a list of these commissions somewhere?  I found this on the US Senate web site.

Supreme Court Nominations, present-1789

For the more recent justices, the nomination links to their nomination hearings.   Where was Scalia from?

Those for Breyer, Kagan, and Roberts gives a state where they were when nominated, rather than raised.

[jimrtex]

According to the Congressional Record for the confirmation vote, Scalia was described as being of Virginia. He had lived in a number of states as a lawyer and professor, so I cold imagine that a "home state" would be otherwise hard to describe.

Other than Scalia (VA), Thomas (GA), and Kennedy (CA) the justices are all from the two northeastern regions on the map (2 MA, 2 NY, NJ and MD).

So we have 18-year terms, with one election every two years.  The districts are grouped into 3 superdistricts: West, South, and East to ensure the rotation is geographically balanced.

2016: South/Mid South (Incumbent Scalia)
2018: West/California (Incumbent Kennedy)
2020: East/Great Lakes (Incumbent Ginsburg)
2022: South/Deep South (Incumbent Thomas)
2024: East/Northeast (Incumbent Breyer)
2026: West/West (Incumbent Roberts)
2028: East/Mid Atlantic (Incumbent Alito)
2030: South/South Central (Incumbent Sotomayor)
2032: West/Midwest (Incumbent Kagan)

2016: West/West (Incumbent Scalia)
2018: South/Midsouth (Incumbent Kennedy)
2020: East/Great Lakes (Incumbent Thomas)

[jimrtex]

Following jimrtex's suggestion of 9 divisions for SCOTUS seats, this division has an average deviation of 3.6% and a maximum of 7.3% from the quota (PR and other territories are with DC).

Other than Illinois, and the likelihood these would change from decade to decade, these would not make unreasonable statistical divisions.

[jimrtex]

Census divisions are not based on political or cultural orientation. Salt Lake City is closer to the great population centers of the West Coast than to those of the Midwest or Texas. Denver has never been seen as Midwestern. Missouri may be politically more like Georgia than like Illinois, but it is all closer to Chicago than to Georgia. Sticking Indiana in the South because it votes more often with Alabama than with Michigan would be arbitrary in the extreme. The Midwest used to be very R and the South used to be D.

Denver at one time was very much a Midwestern city, particularly when most of the inhabitants were from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois.