Skip to main content

Supreme Court faces major decision on partisan gerrymandering | TheHill

posted onJune 18, 2018
>

Article snippet: The Supreme Court has a big decision left to make as it heads into its final weeks of the term: whether to strike down a voter map for the first time as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Experts agree it would be a game changer if the court is able to find a workable test to assess when legislators have gone too far in drawing congressional maps that give their party an edge. The court has longed shied away from policing congressional maps without a clear way to measure how much political bias in redistricting is too much. Court watchers say Justice Anthony Kennedy, a likely swing vote, has been looking for a standard since 2004 when the court refused to wade into a dispute over Pennsylvania’s map. Kennedy signaled at the time that while the court did not have a clear solution then, one could be found eventually.  “That no such standard has emerged in this case should not be taken to prove that none will emerge in the future,” he said. But it's anyone's guess whether Kennedy and other justices have since settled on a standard. “Legislators have taken advantage of computer mapping and the ability to identify the likely votes of virtually every voter to really warp the democratic system, and I think the court recognizes that – or at least five justice recognize that,” said David Cole, national legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union. The court has two cases before it to resolve in the coming weeks – Gill v. Whitford, a challenge to Wisconsin’s... Link to the full article to read more

Emotional score for this article