Huge: Court strikes down Wisconsin GOP's Assembly map as unconstitutional partisan gerrymander

[deminks]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/21/1602671/-Huge-Court-strikes-down-Wisconsin-GOP-s-Assembly-map-as-unconstitutional-partisan-gerrymander

Foes of partisan gerrymandering scored a monumental victory Monday when a three-judge federal panel struck down the Republican-drawn map of the Wisconsin state Assembly as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Wisconsin is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country and Democrats won the statewide popular vote in 2012, but this map helped give Republicans a majority of seats. But critically, this new ruling could reverberate well beyond Wisconsin because the case now sets the stage for a future Supreme Court decision that could set major limits on partisan gerrymandering nationwide.

An earlier Supreme Court ruling called Vieth v. Jubelirer previously held that partisan gerrymandering could be unconstitutional But in that case, Justice Anthony Kennedy, as the deciding vote, refused to strike down the particular map in question for lack of a manageable standard to determine when impermissible partisan gerrymandering takes place. The plaintiffs in Wisconsin proposed one such standard called the “efficiency gap” that would statistically look at how many votes get “wasted” in each election. If one party routinely wins landslide victories in a few seats while the other party wins much more modest yet secure margins in the vast majority, it could signify a gerrymander that has gone so far as to infringe upon on the rights of voters to free speech and equal protection.

(end snip)

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/federal-judges-panel-finds-state-redistricting-plan-an-unconstitutional-gerrymander/article_c7a71b38-b98c-5b9f-aef5-908cc72ee068.html

Federal judges panel finds state redistricting plan an "unconstitutional gerrymander"

[bpositive]

1. Good!

[malaise]

2. Fuckers see what's coming

About time

[msongs]

3. place your bets on whether the trump supreme court will uphold this. nt

[SHRED]

4. Once tRump gets his federal benches filled

All bets are off.

[Hekate]

5. KnR

[Coyotl]

6. K & R

[Ruth Bonner]

7. Many states have been gerrymandered in the last decade I thought...

Indiana was in 2013 and the districts went from reasonable rectangles with roughly equal populations to ridiculous. We immediately lost the Dem congressman we had had and got Todd Young. I'm really hoping to see an analysis of how this - and the fact that the voting rights act was allowed to lapse - impacted the races up and down the ballot. My bet is that these two things could account for more than enough votes that should have gone to Hillary.