WASHINGTON--The U.S. Supreme Court is giving itself another chance to make a definitive ruling on the legality of the long-established but often-criticized political practice called partisan gerrymandering in which state legislators draw electoral districts with the intent of entrenching their party in power.
The high court, which failed to resolve the issue last year, on Friday agreed to hear constitutional challenges to electoral maps drawn by Republicans in North Carolina and by Democrats in Maryland. The court will hear arguments in both cases in March, with rulings due by the end of June that could have enduring political consequences nationwide.
Critics have said partisan gerrymandering is becoming more extreme with the use of precision computer modeling to the point that it has begun to warp democracy in certain states by subverting the will of voters. The high court has struggled over what to do about this practice in which boundaries of legislative districts are reconfigured by state lawmakers with the aim of making them friendly territory on Election Day for candidates in the party in power at the expense of opposing candidates.
The justices in June 2018 failed to issue definitive rulings in cases from Wisconsin and Maryland that election reformers had hoped would prompt the high court to crack down on partisan gerrymandering.
In the North Carolina case, Democratic voters accused the state's Republican-led legislature of drawing U.S. House of Representatives districts in 2016 in a way that disadvantaged Democratic candidates in violation of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law. A lower court sided with the Democratic voters.
"Partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina has become so pervasive that the outcome of many elections is decided before a single vote is cast," said Janet Hoy, co-president of the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, which challenged the state's map.
In the Maryland case, Republican voters accused Democratic legislators of violating their free speech rights under the Constitution's First Amendment by redrawing boundaries of one particular U.S. House district to hinder Republican chances of winning. Democratic legislators in 2011 removed Republican-leaning areas and added Democratic-leaning areas to the district, which had been held by a Republican congressman but has been won by Democrats in every election since. Democrat David Trone won the seat in November's election.
After the Supreme Court in June sidestepped a ruling on the merits of the case, a three-judge panel threw out the district in November as violating the constitutional rights of voters. "It is our view that Supreme Court review is needed to provide guidance to the legislature in future redistricting," said Raquel Coombs, a spokeswoman for Democratic Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh.
