Supreme Court Will Rule on Gerrymandering

[applegrove]

https://politicalwire.com/2017/06/19/supreme-court-will-rule-gerrymandering/

SNIP............


“The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a potential landmark case that addresses how far lawmakers can go in choosing their voters, rather than the other way around,” USA Today reports.

“Venturing into what one justice recently called the ‘always unsavory’ process of drawing election districts for partisan advantage, the court will try to set a standard — something it has failed to do in the past.”

Washington Post: “The justices regularly are called to invalidate state electoral maps that have been illegally drawn to reduce the influence of racial minorities by depressing the impact of their votes. But the Supreme Court has never found a plan unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering. If it does, it would have a revolutionary impact on the reapportionment that comes after the 2020 election, and could come at the expense of Republicans, who control the process in the majority of states.”

Rick Hasen: “This case represents the last best chance for a Court to rein in excesses of partisan gerrymandering, while Justice Kennedy, who has been the swing vote on this issue, remains on the Court.”

.............SNIP

[flying_wahini]

1. Sure wished they would hurry and do it! 2020 sounds like a long time away. N/t

[MichMan]

2. Gerrymandering was required in some instances

Gerrymandering was required under the Voting Rights Act in some instances to create majority minority districts.

Creating districts by geometric entities as some as suggested in other threads may very well mean fewer POC would be elected, so it isn't always bad to have oddly shaped districts

[Roland99]

3. A decision already without a decision??

Democrats just got some very good news from the Supreme Court on gerrymandering
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/19/democrats-just-got-some-very-good-news-from-the-supreme-court-on-gerrymandering/

The justices regularly are called to invalidate state electoral maps that have been illegally drawn to reduce the influence of racial minorities by depressing the impact of their votes.

But the Supreme Court has never found a plan unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering. If it does, it would have a revolutionary impact on the reapportionment that comes after the 2020 election and could come at the expense of Republicans, who control the process in the majority of states.

The court accepted a case from Wisconsin, where a divided panel of three federal judges last year ruled last year that the state’s Republican leadership in 2011 pushed through a plan so partisan that it violated the Constitution’s First Amendment and equal rights protections.

In other words, the fact that the justices are even going to hear this case suggests that it could result in a ruling on the constitutionality question. And since the court has never struck down a map for partisan gerrymandering, that ruling could move the needle in a way we have never seen before.