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The Supreme Court just revealed its plan to make gerrymandering even worse - Ian Millhiser @ Vox
VoxOne of the biggest mysteries that has emerged from the Trump-era Supreme Court is the 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan.
In Milligan, two of the Republican justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — voted with the Court’s Democratic minority to strike down Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional maps, ordering the state to redraw those maps to include an additional district with a Black majority.
As Roberts emphasized in his opinion for the Court in Milligan, a lower court that also struck down these maps “faithfully applied our precedents.” But the Roberts Court frequently overrules or ignores precedents that interpret the Voting Rights Act — the federal law at issue in Milligan — to do more than block the most egregious forms of Jim Crow-like voter suppression. And the Court’s Republican majority is normally hostile to lawsuits challenging gerrymanders of any kind.
Most notably, in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Republican justices held that federal courts may not hear suits challenging partisan gerrymanders. Among other things, Rucho enables tactics like Texas Republicans’ current plans to redraw that state’s congressional maps to maximize GOP power in Congress.
So why did two Republican justices break with their previous skepticism of gerrymandering suits in the Milligan case? A new order that the Supreme Court handed down Friday evening appears to answer that question.
In Milligan, two of the Republican justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — voted with the Court’s Democratic minority to strike down Alabama’s racially gerrymandered congressional maps, ordering the state to redraw those maps to include an additional district with a Black majority.
As Roberts emphasized in his opinion for the Court in Milligan, a lower court that also struck down these maps “faithfully applied our precedents.” But the Roberts Court frequently overrules or ignores precedents that interpret the Voting Rights Act — the federal law at issue in Milligan — to do more than block the most egregious forms of Jim Crow-like voter suppression. And the Court’s Republican majority is normally hostile to lawsuits challenging gerrymanders of any kind.
Most notably, in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Republican justices held that federal courts may not hear suits challenging partisan gerrymanders. Among other things, Rucho enables tactics like Texas Republicans’ current plans to redraw that state’s congressional maps to maximize GOP power in Congress.
So why did two Republican justices break with their previous skepticism of gerrymandering suits in the Milligan case? A new order that the Supreme Court handed down Friday evening appears to answer that question.
The Supreme Court just revealed its plan to make gerrymandering even worse www.vox.com/scotus/42227...
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser.bsky.social) 2025-08-04T19:10:55.105Z
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