The Supreme Court’s Less Than Graceful Exit from the Thicket

The Supreme Court’s Less Than Graceful Exit from the Thicket

The long-awaited partisan gerrymandering decision has come down from the nation's highest court. A 5-4 majority decided to exit the "political thicket" and leave the policing of political gerrymandered redistricting maps to the States, commissions, congress; anybody, except the nine of them. Below are brief excerpts (with explanation) from the both the majority opinion and a passionate dissent from Justice Kagan in the consolidated cases of Lamone v. Benisek, ET Al. (Maryland) and Rucho v. Common Cause, ET Al. (North Carolina). Read the entire case here. The Court: Partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal…
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Listen to Supreme Court Oral Argument in the Maryland Partisan Gerrymandering Case

Listen to Supreme Court Oral Argument in the Maryland Partisan Gerrymandering Case

On March 26, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Benesik v. Lamone, a partisan gerrymandering case from Maryland. Click here for background on this case and its companion case, Rucho v. Common Cause (North Carolina). For a pre oral symposium hosted by SCOTUSBlog, click here. Click here to listen to oral argument for Rucho v. Common Cause.
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Listen to Supreme Court Oral Arguments in the North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case

Listen to Supreme Court Oral Arguments in the North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case

On March 26, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Rucho v. Common Cause, a partisan gerrymandering case from North Carolina.Click here for background on this case and its companion case, Benesik v. Lamone (Maryland). For a pre oral symposium hosted by ScotusBlog, click here. Click here to listen to oral argument in its companion case, Benesik v. Lamone.
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SCOTUSblog Symposium in Anticipation of Oral Arguments in Partisan Gerrymandering Cases

SCOTUSblog Symposium in Anticipation of Oral Arguments in Partisan Gerrymandering Cases

. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in two key partisan gerrymandering cases on March 26; one from Maryland (Benesik v. Lamone) and one from North Carolina (Rucho v. Common Cause). In preparation for these arguments, the editors at SCOTUSblog hosted this pre-argument symposium featuring a group of experts on redistricting law. Here is a quick summary of each contributor's essay. You can click to read each article in full. . Justin Levitt: Suggests that the unconstitutionality of excessive partisan gerrymandering follows from the fact that there is widespread agreement (in the legal community) that any State law that…
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MD and NC Partisan Gerrymandering Cases Return to the U.S. Supreme Court

MD and NC Partisan Gerrymandering Cases Return to the U.S. Supreme Court

On January 4th, the U.S. Supreme Court took up two long-standing partisan gerrymandering challenges on appeal from two federal district courts; one in Maryland and the other in North Carolina.  The question in both of these cases was not whether there was partisan gerrymandering in the making of these maps. Instead it was whether this type of partisan gerrymandering is constitutional or not.  The high court has seemed to duck and weave whenever it has been presented with this question in the past, but this time it feels different. Below is a little background to provide some context for the…
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Maryland’s Sixth District Ruled a Partisan Gerrymander by Federal District Court

Maryland’s Sixth District Ruled a Partisan Gerrymander by Federal District Court

On November 7th, after managing a protracted series of procedural issues involving a lawsuit that was initially filed in 2013, a federal district court panel invalidated Maryland's 6th congressional district on grounds that it was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.  Maryland has until early March 2019 to enact a new congressional map or the court will create its own commission to do so. This case is notable since the court overturned the map on 1st amendment grounds instead of the 14th amendment, which until recently had been the basis for most if not all partisan gerrymandering challenges. (more…)
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Supreme Court Declines to Hear Pennsylvania Republican’s Congressional Map Appeal

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Pennsylvania Republican’s Congressional Map Appeal

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to Republican lawmakers in the Pennsylvania legislature after a January ruling by the Pa. State Supreme Court invalidating the congressional map enacted by the body in 2011.  (more…)
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Leading Expert in Redistricting “Grofman,” Suggests a Path to Proving Partisan Gerrymandering

Bernard Grofman, author, professor at the University of California at Irvine, and an expert witness in a multitude of redistricting cases, published this article in the Washington Post today.  In it Grofman offers a way for courts to assess the level of partisan gerrymandering on a district-by-district basis when the challenge is based on the 14th amendment.  His assessment is timely, given the Supreme Court's recent decision in Gill v. Whitford, which rejected challenges to a map as a whole.  See our discussion of that here.  Grofman points to the court's line of racial gerrymandering cases as a guide and…
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The FiveThirtyEight Blog Releases the Atlas of Redistricting. The Maps are Impressive but Unusable

The FiveThirtyEight Blog Releases the Atlas of Redistricting. The Maps are Impressive but Unusable

  This week, the sports and politics polling blog FiveThirtyEight released its Atlas of Redistricting.  It takes a comprehensive look at the mapping possibilities for every congressional district in the nation, and is part of the site’s Gerrymandering Project, which seeks to uncover in their words, “[what] is greatly misunderstood . . .” about redistricting and whether “gerrymandering can (or should be) killed.” The maps are impressive.  They produce congressional maps for seven common, but vastly different redistricting goals.  The result is that you get to see what your (or any) state’s congressional map would like if it were drawn…
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A Quick History of North Carolina Redistricting Litigation Post 2010

A Quick History of North Carolina Redistricting Litigation Post 2010

North Carolina - The redistricting process in North Carolina has the makings of a classic thriller. There are twists, turns, politics, intrigue, and edge of your seat courtroom drama.  Not to mention the crazy quilt of maps.  Here is an overview of what has happened so far in this state’s district drawing saga. (more…)
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