Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided partisan redistricting cases from Wisconsin and Maryland on procedural grounds and sidestepped the larger question of whether it should be unconstitutional for lawmakers to manipulate state election maps to the advantage of one political party. In response, Liz Kennedy, the senior director of Democracy and Government Reform at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
It is disappointing that the Supreme Court put off for another day a ruling on the substantive issue of extreme partisan gerrymandering, which distorts district maps and denies Americans their right to fair representation. But today’s opinions leave the door open to continue to challenge this unconstitutional practice. Partisan gerrymandering hurts voters and offends fundamental democratic principles. Allowing lawmakers to draw election districts in ways that benefit themselves and their own political parties is like letting the fox guard the henhouse, resulting in noncompetitive elections as well as mismatched representation and policy outcomes that don’t reflect majority preferences. The high court must establish guardrails that bar lawmakers from manipulating election districts to choose their voters, rather than having voters choose them.
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