Recent court decisions in three states are putting carefully carved Republican-drawn state legislative districts at risk — and could even threaten the entire process of partisan map drawing. On Friday, a federal court ordered Wisconsin legislatures to redraw their state House legislative districts after finding in November that the districts were unconstitutionally partisan. The order will essentially require lawmakers to redraw state Senate maps as well. The November decision was the first time this decade that a court has thrown out legislative maps because they favored voters of one party over another. Subsequently, this will be the first time in a decade that lawmakers will have to redraw maps specifically to make them more fair for both parties. Thirty-seven states allow their legislatures to draw their electoral maps, and what these lawmakers have come up with has had a profound effect on U.S. politics. After capturing 21 chambers in the 2010 elections, Republicans redrew nearly half of all congressional districts — four times as many as Democrats.
Over the ensuing years, control of state legislative chambers flipped from 2-to-1 Democratic-controlled to 2-to-1 Republican-controlled, and Democrats have been locked out of the majority in key swing states ever since. In many states, their only hope to make it back to the table to redraw maps after the 2020 census is by winning competitive governor’s races.
Wisconsin Democrats, who are in the minority in the legislature, were hoping the court would redraw the maps itself, but having a second shot at these maps is better than nothing. As such, they are demanding public hearings on the map-drawing process to try to keep a check on it. “What we cannot and will not tolerate is another map drawn behind closed doors,” Wisconsin Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca said in a statement.
Wisconsin is one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation. In 2012, Democratic candidates for the Wisconsin state legislature received more votes than Republicans in November but won just 39 of 99 districts.
Full Article: Republican redistricting is taking a beating in the courts, right now – The Washington Post.