SUPREME COURT observers scratched their heads on the evening of December 8th when the justices announced they were taking on a second major challenge to gerrymandering this term. The justices have yet to resolve Gill v Whitford, a challenge to a Wisconsin gerrymander they heard in October. Like Gill, the new case, Benisek v Lamone involves a state’s majority party charged with redrawing district boundaries in light of data from the 2010 census. And like Gill, the plaintiffs in Benisek say the legislators in charge acted badly, flexing their muscles to unconstitutionally undermine voters from the minority party. But where Gill concerns a Republican redistricting plan, Benisek involves a challenge to a congressional district in Maryland drawn by Democrats.
At the October 3rd hearing on Gill, the first major challenge to purely partisan redistricting the court has taken up in 13 years, the justice most likely...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2BTQqpK
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