Jurisdictional statement in Benisek v. Lamone: This case is a First Amendment challenge to the partisan gerrymander of a single federal congressional district. Plaintiffs allege that state officials responsible for Maryland’s 2011 congressional redistricting plan targeted them for vote dilution… Continue reading

News and Observer: Two of the three North Carolina lawmakers who had joined with prominent national politicians to oppose gerrymandering have now backtracked, saying they didn’t mean to add their names on an anti-gerrymandering letter sent to the Supreme Court.… Continue reading

Another amicus supporting the challengers.

The following is a guest post from Sam Issacharoff and Perry Grossman who worked on this amicus brief in the Whitford case: In his concurrence in Vieth v. Jubilirer, Justice Kennedy suggested that the First Amendment provides a “sounder and… Continue reading

Michael Li and Alexis Farmer for the Brennan Center.

Bob Barnes for WaPo: A long list of prominent Republicans is urging the Supreme Court to find that extreme partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional, saying the practice of drawing electoral lines to benefit one party or another is detrimental to democracy.… Continue reading

Adam Liptak for the NYT: Breaking ranks with many of their fellow Republicans, a group of prominent politicians filed briefs on Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to rule that extreme political gerrymandering — the drawing of voting districts to give… Continue reading

Via the Brennan Center, here are a number of interesting amicus briefs filed today supporting the challengers to Wisconsin’s redistricting (there are still more briefs coming—update: more posted here): Heather K. Gerken, Jonathan N. Katz, Gary King, Larry … Continue reading

Read it here.  

Is the Supreme Court ready to finally rein in partisan gerrymandering? Can social science give us a manageable standard to decide when there’s too much politics in redistricting? Is the “efficiency gap” Justice Kennedy’s holy grail? On Episode 18 of… Continue reading

The following is a guest post from Sam Wang: Next month, the Supreme Court will hear Gill v. Whitford, concerning a partisan gerrymander of the Wisconsin State Assembly. Can the Court set a standard to limit this offense without opening… Continue reading