National: Will the Supreme Court Hand Republicans a Redistricting Revolution? | National Journal
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will debate whether to rewrite the rules for legislative redistricting—in a way that would further strengthen Republicans’ dominance in state politics. State legislative districts are apportioned under the constitutional principle of “one person, one vote.” And, for decades, states have taken that to mean that each district should contain roughly the same number of people. But the challengers in the case before the high court Tuesday say that’s not the right interpretation. They say districts should be apportioned with equal numbers of eligible voters, rather than total residents. If the challengers succeed, the case could usher in a redistricting revolution—and big gains for the GOP. Densely populated urban areas tend to lean Democratic, and also to contain more people who aren’t eligible or registered to vote. If state legislative districts were redrawn to equalize the number of eligible voters, rather than the number of total residents, inner cities’ political power would likely be diluted into more conservative suburbs.