Justices Won’t Intervene In Gerrymandering Cases

The Supreme Court ruled, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, that partisan gerrymandering claims are political questions and cannot be resolved by federal courts.

Wrote Roberts: “We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts. Federal judges have no license to reallocate political power between the two major political parties, with no plausible grant of authority in the Constitution, and no legal standards to limit and direct their decisions.”

The court split 5-4 on conservative-liberal lines.

Axios: “Gerrymandering has gotten a lot more sophisticated and a lot more effective, keeping minority parties in the minority even when they win more votes. But Roberts said that’s a political issue — that it’s simply not the courts’ job to decide whether state legislatures have been too partisan in their redistricting.”

Rick Hasen: “All of this talk about Roberts being the swing vote, or worried about appearances of being political: not on the issues he cares about the most, which are politics, race and power.”