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The Supreme Court appeared convinced on Tuesday that the congressional maps drawn up by the two state legislatures were too partisan, but it feared that the judges themselves would be the only ones able to remedy the long simmering issue.
Partisan gerrymandering may be the naïve side of politics, but the stakes are enormous: the balance of power between state legislatures and Congress may shift in the coming years, especially after the 2020 census, when Voting limits will be redefined based on changing demographics.
The judges heard two separate cases. In North Carolina, the GOP-led legislature's 2011 map now lists 10 of the 13 Republican-occupied congressional seats, despite a broadly divided state-wide population of the state and the statewide have recently been close.
And in Maryland, the question was whether Republican voters could go to court and challenge a redistricting plan that they said violated their First Amendment rights. This 2011 voting card changed the political balance in the 6th district of the state's Rural Congress, transforming a traditional GOP stronghold into democratic control in a blue state as a whole.
GOP people voters win lawsuit against Gerrymanderling forcing Maryland to establish a new congress card for 2020
"Under any measure, it's excessive, is not it?" said Judge Elena Kagan.
"The stated goal was seven to one," Judge Brett Kavanaugh told Maryland's attorney, saying the Democrats were openly boasting about their efforts to appoint only one member. Republican Congress. "I mean, I do not think you should flee the evidence."
A new national redistribution cycle will take place after the census next year. Republicans used the state's strong victories in 2010 to significantly shape voter cards to their advantage.
The debates, which lasted nearly 80 minutes inside the courtroom, showed once again that judges would find it difficult to formulate a clear and definitive decision on the limitation of partisanship in the drawing process. Map.
The judges never invalidated an electoral district because of an unconstitutional gerrymander political party. And the targeted interrogation of the judges hinted that they would not use the pending cases as a precedent for deciding the decisive issue.
"The Supreme Court will soon hear arguments on the question of whether politicians can be trusted to develop their own districts," the governors of Maryland and North Carolina wrote Monday in a Washington editorial Post. "Take it from us, they can not."
THE SUPREME COURT WITH THE TEXAS ON A GERRYMANDERING LITIGATION
In his debates, attorney Paul Clement, representing lawmakers in North Carolina, made it clear to the court not to let the legislators go too far. "Once you enter the political grove, you will not go out and tarnish the image of this Court."
Judge Stephen Breyer said that it was the reason why the court had to find a "clear standard" to go forward. Without this, "you will submit many, many elections to the judges," he said. "There is always someone who wants to challenge it, they will always find experts of all kinds, and what you will discover are judges who simply decide too much."
"Have we really reached the moment, even though it would be very difficult for this Court to involve, where the other actors can not do it?" Kavanaugh asked. "
Judge Neil Gorsuch was more pointed: "Why should we dive?"
But Judge Sonia Sotomayor and other people on the bench have pushed back.
"This can not be simply because the Constitution says that a particular law is in the hands of a branch of government," she said, "which deprives the courts of control of whether this action is constitutional or not ".
"That's what it's all about," she added about the North Carolina map. "You discriminate on the basis of the speech of a group and dilute your vote accordingly."
MYSTERY COMPANY MUST RESPECT THE MUELLER PROBE-RELATED SUB-PROJECT, TO THE RULES OF THE COURT OF APPEAL
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg emphasized that the jurisprudence of the High Court gave her jurisdiction, including the mandate to give equal weight to everyone in the legislative distribution, the so-called "one person, one vote" standard.
"Does a person have a vote that counts as much as the others if the impact of his vote is reduced according to the affiliation of his party?" she asked.
In recent months, the country's courts have rejected GOP plans in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Opponents say their constitutional rights have been violated.
Lawyer Emmet Bondurant – who in 1962 successfully pleaded one of the first lawsuits for gerrymandering supporters in high court – called the GOP lawmakers in North Carolina.
"They adopt the following position: whatever the intention, even extreme, whatever the effects," he told the judges, "there is no constitutional limitation for the partisan gerrymander ".
Several conservative judges have repeatedly questioned alternative formulas proposed by Bondurant and the opposite lawyer to the Maryland map.
"I think the numbers will change, no? What deviation from proportional representation is enough to impose a result?" asked exasperated judge Neil Gorsuch. "So, are not we again deciding what level of tolerance we are willing to tolerate proportional representation?" We could extract a number from it or see it, you know, maybe two-thirds are used for veto substitutions, so we like that, where are we going to get the numbers for the companies? "
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More than thirty dozen states rely on their legislatures to redraw borders directly, now using sophisticated computer models that allow voters to target voters from their streets or households. Other states, like California, rely on an independent commission to create what supporters say are less extreme districts.
The judges seemed aware of the consequences. Kavanaugh said that "extreme-party gerrymandering is a real problem for our democracy – and I will not challenge it."
But Chief Justice John Roberts has stated what is obvious in politics: if a party enjoys the benefits of a redistributed card, it will be reluctant to change it.
"I guess the congressmen are pretty happy with the way the vote was done," he said, causing a worried laugh in the crowded audience room.
The North Carolina case is the case Rucho v. Common Cause (18-422).
The Maryland case is the Lamone case v. Benisek (18-726). Decisions are expected by June.
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