The Supreme Court Takes on Partisan Gerrymandering: Five Things You Need to Know
https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/supreme-court-takes-partisan-gerrymandering-five-things-you-need-know
The Supreme Court is set to rule on a major partisan gerrymandering case that could set a national standard for how legislative maps are drawn
Thomas Wolf
June 7, 2018
This month, the Supreme Court will announce its decisions in a pair of major partisan-gerrymandering cases, Gill v. Whitford (from Wisconsin) and Benisek v. Lamone (from Maryland). The rulings could be the first by the Supreme Court to put meaningful limits on politicians’ ability to draw election districts for their partisan advantage.
And not a minute too soon. Extreme gerrymandering reached unprecedented heights this decade, enabled by sophisticated new technology and increasingly robust data about voters. If the Court doesn’t step in, the next set of maps drawn in 2021 could be even worse for voters.
Here are a few key things to get you up to speed with the cases and their stakes:
1. What happened in Wisconsin and Maryland?
Voters in Wisconsin and Maryland are suing to dismantle extreme gerrymanders created by politicians who dominated the 2011 round of redistricting.
In Wisconsin, voters are challenging their state assembly map, which Republicans gerrymandered in extreme fashion. The gerrymander secured Republicans a sizable majority that has been insulated from shifts in voter preferences ever since: In 2012, Republicans won 60 of the 99 seats in the General Assembly despite winning only 48.6 percent of the two-party statewide vote; in 2014, they won 63 seats with only 52 percent of the statewide vote. When a panel of three judges struck down the plan as an “aggressive partisan gerrymander,” it was the first time in American history that a federal court declared a map unconstitutional on these grounds. Wisconsin officials then appealed to the Supreme Court. A ruling in favor of the Wisconsin voters would force a redrawing of the state assembly map, although most likely for the 2020, rather than the 2018, election............................
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