WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court is set on Tuesday to once more hear arguments on gerrymandering, the dark art of redrawing political boundaries to extract partisan advantage: a practice that is almost as old as the country itself.
The plan was successful: in the 2018 congressional vote, Democrats won a majority of votes statewide, but only three of the 13 districts.AdvertisementThe Maryland case, on the other hand, hinges on one rural district, which remained in the hands of the same Republican for 20 years. It underwent a redistricting exercise in 2012, which added more urban voters, and flipped to the Democrats two years later.
Judge Anthony Kennedy tipped the balance by voting against reform - but said he might be persuaded in future if courts were presented with a"workable standard" by which to assess whether a district had been gerrymandered.His replacement is conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed by President Donald Trump last year. His position on the matter remains unknown and is eagerly awaited.
"Cracking" goes to the other extreme, spreading the opponent's voters across districts where the favored party maintains a slim majority, thereby ensuring the losers' votes are wasted. In the case of North Carolina, those responsible for drawing the map have argued it is not the court's business"to wade into the political thicket of refereeing claims that legislatures organised along partisan lines were too partisan in their redistricting".
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