SCOTUS Sets Date for Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case

image
Published: 20 Jul, 2017
1 min read

The Supreme Court of the United States has released its October oral argument calendar. Bloomberg SCOTUS reporter Greg Stohr tweeted the cases that will be heard, which includes the Wisconsin gerrymandering case, Gill v. Whitford:

https://twitter.com/GregStohr/status/887733773827289099

SCOTUS decided in June to hear the case. It also stayed a lower court's order that the Wisconsin legislature redraw its state Assembly districts by November.

The lower district court found that the electoral districts were so politically skewed in favor of the Republican Party, they violated the voting rights of voters outside the party. It was the first time a court ruled electoral districts were unconstitutional because of the political motivations behind the mapmaking.

With new statistical methods being used to show how bad partisan gerrymandering is in several states, like the efficiency gap, SCOTUS may now have the measurable standard to determine a partisan gerrymander that they didn't have in Vieth v. Jubelirer (2004).

Photo Credit: W. Scott McGill / shutterstock.com

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