Supreme Court takes 2 partisan gerrymandering cases
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to review highly partisan election maps drawn by Republicans in North Carolina and Democrats in Maryland, and decide whether such political gerrymandering violates voters' rights to a fair election.
In North Carolina, the state's Republican leaders drew the congressional districts to lock in a 10-3 advantage for their candidates, even when the state's votes were evenly split.
In Maryland, Democratic leaders shifted more than 100,000 voters to transform a safe Republican district into a reliably Democratic one. As a result, seven of its eight seats are held by Democrats.
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"Voters nationwide are ready for a ruling from the Supreme Court that finally declares that they come first, not self-interested politicians," said Paul Smith, a lawyer for the Campaign Legal Center. "If the Supreme Court fails to set limits on this undemocratic practice, we will see a festival of copycat gerrymandering in 2020 the likes of which the country has never seen before."