Supreme Court Declines to Set Limits on Political Gerrymandering
WASHINGTON—A deeply divided Supreme Court on Thursday declined to impose legal limits on how lawmakers draw electoral districts to benefit their own political party, a decision that could give lawmakers even more leeway to adopt maps that maximize partisan gain.
The court, in a 5-to-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, rejected two constitutional challenges to partisan district mapmaking, one brought by Democrats in North Carolina and another by Republicans in Maryland.
The high court said partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions that federal courts cannot decide. Conservative justices were in the majority, while the court’s liberal justices dissented. The decision precludes future legal claims under the Constitution to restrain both parties from using the redistricting process to concentrate and expand their power.
The ruling will have ramifications for the redistricting process on the federal, state and local levels. And it comes with the 2020 census on the horizon, an occasion that will require maps across the U.S. to be redrawn to reflect shifts in population. That next round of districts now could have an even more partisan character, as map makers have less to fear from the federal courts.
Both parties have long engaged in partisan mapmaking, but such gerrymanders have drawn fire from across the political spectrum. Critics say the practice minimizes the number of closely contested political races and makes elected representatives too disconnected from the will of voters.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-political-gerrymander-ruling-11561642594