Nicholas Stephanopoulos Interviewed on NPR About Gerrymandering
Supreme Court Gets Involved In Redistricting
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
This week, the Supreme Court will hear cases on whether lawmakers in Virginia and North Carolina rely too heavily on race when drawing congressional districts. The Supreme Court has ruled before on race and redistricting, but it's avoided getting involved in evaluating partisan gerrymandering. That could change all because of a recent decision by a federal district court in Wisconsin. University of Chicago law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos was a lawyer for the plaintiffs in that case.
NICHOLAS STEPHANOPOULOS: So it was a claim by about a dozen Wisconsin citizens that Wisconsin's current state House district plan was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander because it deliberately and severely and unjustifiably discriminated against Democratic voters and candidates.
CHANG: And let me just make sure we all understand it. This is partisan gerrymandering, right? I always thought partisanship was the whole point of gerrymandering. That's first what I want to talk about. You know, when does gerrymandering become too partisan to be legal?
STEPHANOPOULOS: So the courts have struggled with that exact question for years. From the founding up until 1986, there was no judicial or legal limit on the extent of partisan gerrymandering that was allowed. In 1986, though, the Supreme Court for the first time recognized a theory of partisan gerrymandering under the Constitution. Now, it's worth noting that even though we've in principle had this lawsuit available for the last 30 years, plaintiffs have never actually won one of these cases.
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