The Supreme Court is set to take on new gerrymandering cases
The Supreme Court will once again consider the unresolved question of whether the Constitution bars partisan gerrymandering, agreeing Friday to consider lower court rulings that congressional maps in Maryland and North Carolina were so extreme as to constitute a violation of voters' rights.
This raises the possibility of a historic outcome: The Supreme Court has never ruled that a gerrymandered map was unconstitutional, and it has so far punted on any opportunities to do so.
The court's announcement comes at a time when a majority of Americans appear to be fed up with the influence of gerrymandering (also called redistricting) in the electoral process: A 2017 poll from the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center found that "an overwhelming majority (71 to 15 percent) of Americans want the Supreme Court to place limits on lawmakers' ability to manipulate voting maps." That plurality included 30 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of Republicans, and 68 percent of Independents.