Huge: Court strikes down Wisconsin GOP's Assembly map as unconstitutional partisan gerrymander [View all]
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/21/1602671/-Huge-Court-strikes-down-Wisconsin-GOP-s-Assembly-map-as-unconstitutional-partisan-gerrymander
Foes of partisan gerrymandering scored a monumental victory Monday when a three-judge federal panel struck down the Republican-drawn map of the Wisconsin state Assembly as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Wisconsin is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country and Democrats won the statewide popular vote in 2012, but this map helped give Republicans a majority of seats. But critically, this new ruling could reverberate well beyond Wisconsin because the case now sets the stage for a future Supreme Court decision that could set major limits on partisan gerrymandering nationwide.
An earlier Supreme Court ruling called Vieth v. Jubelirer previously held that partisan gerrymandering could be unconstitutional But in that case, Justice Anthony Kennedy, as the deciding vote, refused to strike down the particular map in question for lack of a manageable standard to determine when impermissible partisan gerrymandering takes place. The plaintiffs in Wisconsin proposed one such standard called the efficiency gap that would statistically look at how many votes get wasted in each election. If one party routinely wins landslide victories in a few seats while the other party wins much more modest yet secure margins in the vast majority, it could signify a gerrymander that has gone so far as to infringe upon on the rights of voters to free speech and equal protection.
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http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/federal-judges-panel-finds-state-redistricting-plan-an-unconstitutional-gerrymander/article_c7a71b38-b98c-5b9f-aef5-908cc72ee068.html
Federal judges panel finds state redistricting plan an "unconstitutional gerrymander"