Wisconsin Rep Says Districts Serve Parties, Not Voters

image
Published: 22 Jun, 2017
1 min read
I’m not sure there should be any restrictions whatsoever, because I don’t think it is the court’s business to draw lines. There are many rules right now — that the courts have laid out — that if you want your redistricting map approved you have to meet.” - US Rep. Glenn Grothman

That was the response US Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) gave on the Supreme Court's decision to hear the partisan gerrymandering case, Gill v. Whitford. Grothman made these comments in an interview with Matt Kittle of the MacIver Institute

It is the first case in which a federal court ruled that a state's electoral maps were unconstitutional not on the basis of race or sex or class discrimination, but because they discriminated against voters based on party affiliation.

The lawsuit raised the fundamental question: does drawing districts for purely partisan reasons violate the fundamental right to vote for everyone else?

Grothman defends the districts, saying that state lawmakers followed all the rules set forth by the court when drawing the maps in 2011.

But these rules do not consider the partisan motives that go into drawing electoral maps, including efforts to pack voters outside the party in power into a small handful of districts to reduce the power these voters have in elections.

That is what is being challenged in Gill v. Whitford. But Grothman doesn't see a problem here. In fact, he doesn't think there should be any restrictions on gerrymandering, and the courts should stay out of it.

Listen to the interview (Gerrymandering discussion begins at 11:45):

IVP Donate

You Might Also Like

Why Mathematicians Love Ranked Choice Voting
Why Mathematicians Love Ranked Choice Voting
The Institute for Mathematics and Democracy (IMD) has released what may be the most comprehensive empirical study of ranked choice voting ever conducted. The 66-page report analyzes nearly 4,000 real-world ranked ballot elections, including some 2,000 political elections, and more than 60 million simulated ones to test how different voting methods perform....
11 Dec, 2025
-
4 min read
California flag
Quirk Silva’s Exit Sparks a High-Profile Orange County Clash, Where Independent Voters Control the Math
California’s 67th Assembly District stretches across parts of Orange and Los Angeles counties, connecting some of the region’s most dynamic and diverse suburban communities. It includes the entire cities of Cerritos, La Palma, Hawaiian Gardens, Artesia, Buena Park, and Cypress, as well as portions of Fullerton and Anaheim....
18 Dec, 2025
-
6 min read
Donald Trump
Trump Signs Order to Reclassify Cannabis to Schedule III
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his administration will officially move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, a decision that marks the most significant change to U.S. drug policy since the early 1970s....
18 Dec, 2025
-
2 min read