Supreme Court's Partisan Gerrymandering Case Could Have Texas Implications

KUT 90.5 | By Jill Ament | Texas Standard

Published June 20, 2017 at 12:55 PM CDT

2012 Houston congressional district boundaries

For the first time in more than a decade, the Supreme Court will take up a case questioning a common practice U.S. lawmakers use to draw political maps: gerrymandering.

The that it will consider whether district lines drawn by Wisconsin鈥檚 Republican-controlled legislature in 2011 put Democratic legislators at a disadvantage.Earlier this year, a federal appeals court struck down Wisconsin鈥檚 maps, saying they were so partisan that they violated the First Amendment and equal rights protections in the Constitution.

, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, says when the Supreme Court last tackled partisan gerrymandering in 2004, the justices could not agree on a test to evaluate the issue.

Texas lawmakers will likely closely follow the case, as it could have implications in the state, which has its own redistricting case. In March, judges ruled that three of the state鈥檚 36 congressional districts were illegally drawn to intentionally discriminate against minorities. A San Antonio federal court is set to hear arguments in July.

Hasen says that unlike Texas, where partisan and racial gerrymandering often overlap, this isn鈥檛 the case in Wisconsin.

鈥淭he number of Democrats and Republicans is about the same, but the state assembly leans heavily toward Republicans because of how the lines were drawn,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he question is whether that went too far and whether the courts need to intervene to try to create some equality between the two parties when in fact, they are pretty equal in the state of Wisconsin.鈥�

Hasen says although the case does not address issues of race, the ruling will still be relevant to Texas lawmakers.

鈥淓very time Texas is accused of racial gerrymandering, they come back and say, 鈥榥o, no it鈥檚 a partisan gerrymandering,' as though that鈥檚 a defense,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd the question in this case is maybe that鈥檚 not a defense, maybe that鈥檚 a constitutional violation in and of itself.鈥�

The Supreme Court will likely hear the case in November or December 2017, and a ruling will be made by June 2018.

鈥淚f the court indeed finds a partisan gerrymander, we鈥檒l get to the question, will those [Wisconsin] districts be redrawn in time for the 2018 elections or will it be kicked to 2020?鈥� Hasen says.

Written by Molly Smith.