Can we fix partisan gerrymandering, now that the Supreme Court kicked it back to the states

The republican supreme court chose to allow extreme partisan gerrymandering, with the excuse that dealing with it is up to the states. When a party has done gerrymandering so strongly that even when the voters choose the other party, a strong majority of the entrenched party are elected to the state legislature, how can this be changed? Suggested changes depend on the state legislatures to implement, or at least not block, needed changes, which they are unwilling to do. Eg., it is the state legislature that decides what gets on the ballot. They could refuse to fund independent redistricting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/02/heres-how-fix-partisan-gerrymandering-now-that-supreme-court-kicked-it-back-states/

Here’s how to fix partisan gerrymandering, now that the Supreme Court kicked it back to the states.


By Alex Keena, Michael Latner, Charles Anthony Smith, and Anthony McGann
July 2 at 7:45 AM

On Thursday, the Supreme Court released its much-anticipated decision in Rucho v. Common Cause, saying that if a legislature draws districts that disproportionately favor one party — usually called “partisan gerrymandering” — it’s a “political question” that the federal courts can’t fix.

Those who oppose partisan gerrymandering must therefore fight it in the states, where reformers have made significant gains. Last year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a Republican-drawn state map and replaced it with one drawn by an independent expert, leading Democrats to gain three House seats in 2018. Voters in five states approved ballot initiatives to adopt independent redistricting. Several other states are considering similar measures.

But it is not clear whether independent districting will lead to politically neutral maps, in part because so little research has been done. To understand the consequences of redistricting reform, we have spent the last several years compiling a comprehensive data set on how all 50 states handled redistricting of the 99 state legislative chambers after the 2010 Census. Here’s what we found.

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Although our analysis is only preliminary, our findings suggest that independent redistricting is likely to succeed in neutralizing partisan influence. But in many of the states where reformers have won key victories, lawmakers have resisted implementing those reforms.

For example, last year, Missouri voters approved a ballot measure that tasks a nonpartisan state demographer with redistricting — but Republican legislators are suing to block it from going into effect. Similarly, last fall Michigan’s voters passed a constitutional amendment creating an independent redistricting commission — but in a lame-duck session, lawmakers passed regulations that, critics said, would constrain the commission’s power.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/27/supreme-court-blows-gerrymandering-editorials-debates/1586987001/

Supreme Court blows it on gerrymandering. What an incumbent racket.
The Editorial Board, USA TODAY Published 6:00 p.m. ET June 27, 2019 | Updated 6:05 p.m. ET June 27, 2019

Recent years have been hard on a Supreme Court trying to maintain its reputation for impartial justice. Time and again, the justices have jumped into cases that advantage one major political party at the expense of the other.

In virtually all of them — on issues ranging from the 2000 Florida recount to money in elections to restrictive voter ID laws to modern interpretations of the 1965 Voting Rights Act — the court has found a rationale for doing the Republican Party’s bidding.

That continued on Thursday, as the court claimed it was powerless to stop the sort of extreme political redistricting that lets politicians choose their voters, rather than the other way around.

Chief Justice John Roberts’ 5-4 opinion in consolidated cases from Maryland and North Carolina found that gerrymandering is unhealthy, but is nonetheless a state prerogative that the court has no power to correct.

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True, both parties have engaged in political gerrymandering. And the court reviewed one glaring example from each. But thanks to the 2010 wave election that swept Republicans into power in numerous states and advances in computerization, the great majority of misdrawn maps — in places like Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida — were created by Republicans for the benefit of Republicans.

And a national coordinated effort by republicans to bring this about.

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There are other ways for citizens to act as well. Last November, two of the most grossly gerrymandered states — Wisconsin (by Republicans) and Maryland (by Democrats) — elected or reelected governors of the opposite party with the power to veto redistricting plans. Next year, voters might want to consider casting strategic votes against the party that controls all of the strings.

See original article for other efforts to fight this assault on our democracy.

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