Supreme Court Rejects MI Gerrymandering Case
Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court put a stop to a ruling that would have given the judicial branch unprecedented power over the drawing of voting districts in the state of Michigan. The ruling that was overturned would have required Michigan to re-do congressional district lines and could have potentially altered the outcome of the 2020 elections. Two similar cases were previously before the court, coming from North Carolina and Maryland, where plaintiffs sought the help of the court in overturning voting districts drawn by state legislatures.
In his ruling, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts noted “Federal judges have no license to reallocate political power between the two major political parties, with no plausible grant of authority in the Constitution, and no legal standards to limit and direct their decisions…”
One reason why this ruling is important is the power that would have been imparted to the judiciary in the event that state lawmakers had not redrawn districts in time. If they had failed to comply, the lower court allowed for judicial discretion in the re-drawing of congressional districts, a power that is not and should not ever be in the hands of un-elected judges
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