Voter Suppression

SCOTUS Allows Ruling Against Gerrymandering to Stand

Written by SK Ashby

Good news -- the Supreme Court has allowed a lower court ruling in favor of redrawing district maps in Virginia to stand.

In a narrow ruling based on procedural grounds, a majority of the Supreme Court stated that Republicans did not have standing to bypass lower federal courts and bring their case to the Supreme Court.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the opinion for a 5-4 court, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch. [...]

"One House of its bicameral legislature cannot alone continue the litigation against the will of its partners in the legislative process," Ginsburg wrote.

"If the State had designated the House to represent its interests, and if the House had in fact carried out that mission, we would agree that the House could stand in for the State. Neither precondition, however, is met here."

While this ruling does not necessarily mean similar efforts to redraw district maps in other states will stand, it is undeniably good news at least for today.

With the lower court ruling intact, Virginia's next election will use new district maps that aren't racially gerrymandered. Republicans only hold a two seat majority in both chambers of the state legislature and they'll have to defend those seats without the benefit of a maps they specifically created to benefit themselves.

Voters should decide who will represent them, not the other way around.