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Old 10-10-2016, 06:33 PM   #504
driveway
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The Democrats are currently being sued in Maryland over redistricting too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...9a6_story.html

Quote:
A lawsuit challenging Maryland’s contorted congressional district map on First Amendment grounds has merit and should go forward, a three-judge federal panel ruled Wednesday.

The map, drawn by Maryland’s Democratic lawmakers following the 2010 Census, essentially ensured that seven of the state’s eight congressional seats would be under their party’s control.
...
The suit, brought by Steve Shapiro, an American University law student, presents a novel argument: that the gerrymandered map violated the rights of 6th District Republican voters to political association and expression.
...
Michael Kimberly, Shapiro’s attorney, said that if his client prevails at trial, and the case ends up back in the Supreme Court, it could eventually bring sweeping changes to redistricting across the country.

“This could be the biggest gerrymandering case in a generation,” Kimberly said. “It could have enormous impact.”
...
While the Supreme Court has been active in enforcing the Voting Rights Act, which bars racial gerrymandering, it has not definitively addressed partisan gerrymandering. The reason, Justice Antonin Scalia said in writing for the majority in the 2004 case Vieth v. Jubelirer, is that it is difficult to devise a test to determine when lawmakers have gone too far in adjusting district boundaries for partisan advantage.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy left the door ajar for a challenge to redistricting based on the First Amendment, if plaintiffs can prove that redistricting created “disfavored treatment” of groups because of their voting preferences.
Should this case make its way to the Supreme Court - particularly if it does so after a Democratic Presidential win, nomination, and acceptance by the Senate of a new, Liberal justice, it's a case where a loss by the Democratic Party of Maryland could have long-reaching positive benefit to the Democratic party as a whole.

If the Supreme Court were to rule that it is a 1st Amendment violation to consider political affiliation and voting history when drawing up districts, then any number of States would likely be facing lawsuits.
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