WI Republicans Can Keep Gerrymandered Districts: Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow Thursday to opponents of partisan gerrymandering, with a 5-to-4 vote in favor of allowing the majority party of a state legislature to redraw voting maps along party lines, reports The New York Times. The ruling means federal courts can no longer have a say in state legislative map disputes.

The decision comes amid high tensions over gerrymandering in Wisconsin, which critics say has given the state's Republicans an unproportionally high amount of seats in the Assembly.

Republicans took control of Wisconsin's state government during the 2010 election and redrew legislative maps in 2011 as part of redistricting required every 10 years.

According to the Brennan Center of Justice, after districts were redrawn by Wisconsin Republicans in 2012, Republicans won 60 of the 99 seats in the Wisconsin 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.

See more on Patch:

• Partisan Gerrymandering Constitutional: Supreme Court — Reports
• Wisconsin At Center Of Supreme Court Battle Over Partisan Maps

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr, writing the court's decision, stated, "We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts." The Constitution, he wrote, in granting state legislatures the role of drawing election maps, presupposed that politics would play a role, and that judges had no place in questioning the judgments of lawmakers.

A lower federal court found that the GOP-drawn Wisconsin legislative maps were unconstitutional and ordered the party to redraw maps in time for the November 2018 election.

"There are only two things that are certain about this case: it's unprecedented and it isn't over. The ruling can and should be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court," Vos said after the lower court's ruling.