SUPREME COURT/VOTING: “The Supreme Court announced on Monday [6-19-17] that it would consider whether partisan gerrymandering can violate the Constitution. The case could reshape American politics.
The court has struck down election maps as racial gerrymanders that disadvantage minority voters. But it has never disallowed a map on the ground that it was drawn to give an unfair advantage to a political party.
Some justices have said the court should stay out of such political disputes entirely. Others have said partisan gerrymanders may violate the Constitution. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has taken a middle position, and the case could turn on his vote.
In a 2004 concurrence, he wrote that he might consider a challenge to political gerrymanders if there were ‘a workable standard’ to decide when they crossed a constitutional line. But he said he had not seen such a standard.
The challengers in the new case, Gill v. Whitford, No. 16-1161, say they have found a way to separate partisanship from the many other factors that influence how districts are drawn.”
-Adam Liptak, “Justices to Hear Major Challenge to Partisan Gerrymandering,” The New York Times oonline, June 19, 2017