Supreme Court Conservatives Open Door to Further Partisanship and Voter Suppression

Washington, D.C. — The Supreme Court today handed down a decision which now allows North Carolina and other state legislatures to employ skewed redistricting maps widely regarded as being drawn to benefit Republicans in the state. Below is a statement from ACS President Caroline Fredrickson.

“In crafting their decision today, the justices in the majority ran away from the democracy enshrined in the Constitution and our laws. They claimed that no standard can be crafted to determine ‘how partisan is too partisan’ and therefore these issues must be left to the states. But it is clear to all that many states are manipulating these processes with corrupt intent, including to the many lower courts that have called out these states for their dirty tricks. It will be hard for any American to look at this ruling and not think the supposedly-independent Court intentionally turned a blind eye to obviously corrupt behavior because it benefits the party that put them on the bench.

“Voters should pick the politicians, not the other way around. Today, the Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to that basic concept, turning its back on our democracy as a whole and it is now up to individual states to set clear rules that block overtly partisan redistricting efforts and ensure everybody’s vote counts equally.”

AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
Founded in 2001, the American Constitution Society (ACS) is a leading progressive legal organization and network of attorneys, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers, and other concerned individuals, dedicated to making the law a force to improve people’s lives. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter at @acslaw. You can also follow Caroline Fredrickson on Twitter @crfredrickson.