High court to hear test of political gerrymandering
Wisconsin case could affect party division; California unaffected
The Supreme Court will take up a fight over parties manipulating electoral districts to gain partisan advantage in a case that could affect the balance between Democrats and Republicans in many states. California, however, is unlikely to see much of an effect from the high court’s consideration of that case.
At issue is whether Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin drew legislative districts that favored their party and were so out of whack with the state’s political breakdown that they violated the constitutional rights of Democratic voters. It will be the high court’s first case in more than a decade on what’s known as partisan gerrymandering. A lower court struck down the districts as unconstitutional last year.
However, in California, the state’s non-partisan redistricting and its “toptwo” primary system have actually led to more-competitive races, some even pitting members of the same party against one another.
In California, redistricting is the responsibility of an independent commission set up to ensure no one party unduly influences the outcome.
The process, set up through a 2008 ballot measure and refined in 2010, creates a 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission made up of five Democrats, five Republicans and four people who don’t belong to either party.
The commission oversees redistricting for both state legislative offices and congressional districts.
Supreme Court justices won’t hear the arguments in the Wisconsin until the fall, but the case has already taken on a distinctly ideological, if not partisan, tone.
Just 90 minutes after justices announced Monday that they would hear the case, the five more conservative justices voted to halt a lower court’s order to redraw the state’s legislative districts by November, in time for next year’s elections.
The four more liberal justices, named to the court by Democrats, would have let the new line-drawing proceed even as the court considers the issue.
That divide could be significant. One factor the court weighs in making such decisions is which side seems to have a better chance of winning.