Democrats and some Republicans are turning to state courts as a political tool to help adopt partisan gerrymandering ahead of the 2024 elections, which is part of a trend following a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that such gerrymandering does not violate the Constitution, according to an election. expert.
“In that Supreme Court decision [Rucho v. Common Cause]The court said political gerrymandering does not violate the United States Constitution,” Hans Von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital this month in a telephone interview. “That basically ruled out federal courts and “Democrats basically object to redistricting that they don't like.”
“So, then they switched to state courts. And they started filing lawsuits, like in North Carolina, for example, in Pennsylvania, alleging that political gerrymandering that favored, in those cases, the Republican Party violated the state constitution,” said.
Historically, redistricting plans are approved by state legislatures, and Democrats easily install their plans in Democratic-controlled legislatures “when redistricting comes up,” said von Spakovsky, who previously served on the Federal Election Commission. . But as Republicans in states across the country began to gain control of legislatures and worked to redraw the lines to favor the GOP, Democrats filed lawsuits in an effort to stop them.
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The Supreme Court (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite/File)
Republicans currently control nearly 55% of all state legislative seats, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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“The Democrats decided they wanted to go to court to stop that. And then they filed a series of cases claiming that political gerrymandering violated the U.S. Constitution, because what they said was, 'Well, if you're political manipulation, then people are being denied equal representation,'” von Spakovsky said.
In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in its landmark redistricting case that partisan gerrymandering does not violate the United States Constitution, detailing that partisan gerrymandering raises political questions beyond the reach of federal courts. The move forced local leaders seeking redistricting to rely on state courts to approve gerrymandered voting lines.
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Von Spakvosky singled out Wisconsin as the top state to watch for Democratic efforts to redistrict or alter election laws this year, noting how the state's Supreme Court recently turned blue.
“Wisconsin is the number one spot because of the fact that in the last state election the Democrats took control of the state Supreme Court. And they elected a very, very liberal individual to be on the court,” he said.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court, which turned blue in 2023, last month ordered new legislative maps to be drawn, throwing out maps drawn by Republicans as unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court ruled that it will adopt new maps before the 2024 elections unless state lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers agree to new lines beforehand. Last week, Evers vowed to veto a map drawn up by Republicans and said he would leave the matter to the courts.
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Wisconsin is a battleground state, which former President Trump won in the 2016 presidential race against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Biden won the state in 2020 when he faced Trump.
Shortly after the state Supreme Court threw out the legislative maps, top Democratic attorney Marc Elias' law firm, Elias Law Group, filed a lawsuit this month, arguing that the court's ruling paves the way to throw out the legislative maps as well. State Congress before 2024.
“Marc Elias and the group he has – which is very well funded – started filing lawsuits trying to reverse some previous decisions on election issues that had been issued when the Republicans [controlled] the state Supreme Court and the redistricting fight that is happening. Elijah did that because he knew that now he had a favorable court; a favorable court that would hopefully go its way on these redistricting issues,” von Spakvosky said.
A voter fills out his or her ballot in early voting. (George Frey/AFP via Getty Images)
“Wisconsin's current congressional map was drawn according to the 'least change' principle that perpetuated and exacerbated the partisan injustice that has deprived Wisconsin voters of fair congressional districts for more than a decade,” said Abha Khanna, partner at Elias Law Group, about the latest lawsuit in a press release provided to Fox News Digital. “Fortunately, the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently struck down the requirement that courts adhere to a “minimal change” approach to redistricting, noting that the practice is both flawed and unworkable. “Wisconsin’s congressional map now has no basis in Wisconsin law or precedent, and the redress process to adopt a new, legal map must resume immediately.”
New York State Capitol (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
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In New York at the end of last year, The state's highest court ruled Democrats won a massive victory, ordering the state's redistricting commission to draw new congressional maps ahead of the 2024 election cycle, as Democrats try to regain seats they lost in 2022.
New York has been in the midst of a redistricting saga dating back to before the 2022 election cycle. Empire State voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution in 2014 that overhauled its redistricting process and banned partisan manipulation. Created the Bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission, which is tasked with redesigning the lines of Congress.
However, the commission failed to reach a consensus before the 2022 elections. allow the Democrat-controlled legislature to intervene and draw the map.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the redesigned map into law, prompting a lawsuit from Republicans. A county judge at the time taped the map drawn by Democrats before state Democrats took the case to the Court of Appeals.
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The Court of Appeals also overturned the map and appointed an independent “special master” from out of state to redraw congressional lines before the 2022 elections. What soon followed in the new districts was that Republicans won five of the six competitive House races in New York and turned four blue seats red.
In an effort to regain seats, Democrats again launched their redistricting effort ahead of the 2024 elections.
According to last month's ruling on redistricting, the Court of Appeals had recently undergone a change in leadership when the chief judge overseeing the 2022 redistricting challenge resigned last year and was replaced by Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson, author of this year's judicial opinion that ordered the maps. be redrawn. Both judges are members of the Democratic Party, although Wilson is seen as a more solidly progressive judge.
“Due to the change in the Court of Appeals, [Democrats] “They may think that even if they present an egregiously rigged map, they might think they have a better chance of surviving a court challenge because of that personnel change,” New York elections lawyer Joe Burns previously told Fox News Digital.
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Burns said in an interview this month that the new redistricting in New York is “totally unprecedented” and comes amid other election efforts championed by Democrats, including moving local elections to even years along with costly and eye-catching gubernatorial and presidential elections.
“We are seeing something that is unprecedented: a second round of redistricting after this is done in 2022. New York now has the largest number of Republican House members since, I believe, after the 1994 election in a incredibly divided country. House Representative. I think it's pretty obvious where things have gone,” Burns said.
Wisconsin State Capitol (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
On the flip side of Democratic 2024 redistricting efforts, North Carolina Republicans recently retook control of the state Supreme Court and overturned their own earlier ruling that gerrymandering is unconstitutional, which It paved the way for Republicans to redraw the state's congressional lines.
People vote at a polling station in Brooklyn, New York. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“In North Carolina, there were state elections several years ago. Democrats took control of the state Supreme Court… Democrats claimed that political manipulation, and in this case, by the Republican legislature, violated the constitution In the upcoming elections for the state Supreme Court, those Democratic judges were challenged. “The Republican justices took control of the state Supreme Court… and issued a decision reconsidering that earlier decision and saying that the court was wrong and that political gerrymandering does not violate the state constitution,” von Spakovsky said.
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He said Democrats “came up with this potential weapon” to lean on state courts to change election laws and redraw state maps, adding that some Republicans have also joined the trend and “tried to use the same weapon.”
