Is SCOTUS About to Finally Give Voters a Win on Gerrymandering?

Author: FairVote
Published: 11 Jan, 2019
Updated: 18 Jun, 2025
2 min read

All rise. The fearsome gerrymander is back before the Supreme Court of the United States.

In the days since SCOTUS announced its decision to review partisan district-drawing cases in both Maryland and North Carolina, the already hot topic of gerrymandering grew even more fiery, with both sides anxious to see what the nation’s highest court does - or doesn’t do -  to intervene.

Last year, the court punted on a prior version of the same Maryland case it will revisit this term; it similarly declined to weigh on a separate partisan gerrymandering case in Wisconsin. With Justice Brett Kavanaugh now seated in place of former Justice Anthony Kennedy, a  swing vote in key decisions who indicated interest in reining in partisan gerrymanders, some legal experts are even more skeptical the court will act.

But the stakes are even higher now, as the post-2020 Census redistricting looms large on the horizon. As Paul Smith, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, “If the Supreme Court fails to set limits on this undemocratic practice, we will see a festival of copycat gerrymandering in 2020 the likes of which the country has never seen before.”

The prospect of more extreme gerrymandering than what happened in the post-2010 redistricting, which FairVote Senior Fellow Dave Daley dubbed “the most audacious political heist of modern times” in his 2016 book on the topic, presents an ominous future for voters and democracy.

We certainly stand behind those who have used the courts to fight for fair maps, and hope the Supremes will dub this important issue worthy of their judgement. That said, a SCOTUS ruling is not a panacea, but a part of what needs to be a larger discussion of how to use system reforms like ranked choice voting and multi-member districts to create a government which represents and empowers voters.

Photo Credit: This quick take originally published on FairVote's website and has been modified slightly for publication on IVN.

In this article

Related articles

Fence in front of Congress.
The Worst Partisan Gerrymanders of the 2020s
With two post-census election cycles in the books, congressional district maps are mostly set for the remainder of the decade – which means we will know the outcomes of the vast majority of House elections before voters even cast ballots in November 2026, 2028 and 2030....
13 Dec, 2024
-
9 min read
two parties
The Parties Strike Back: Deceptive Tactics Lead to Rough Night for More Choice Elections
Voters across the US had a chance to change the political landscape in the country forever. In 2024, however, the two major parties were mostly successful at stopping reform to the electoral status quo....
06 Nov, 2024
-
5 min read
two parties
Democrat-Led Lawsuit Kills Independent Redistricting Initiatives in Nevada
The Nevada Supreme Court on Friday upheld the ruling of a lower district court that two identical ballot questions that would create an independent redistricting commission were invalid because sponsors did not add a revenue source to either initiative....
11 May, 2024
-
2 min read

Latest articles

Crowd in Time Square.
NYC Exit Survey: 96% of Voters Understood Their Ranked Choice Ballots
An exit poll conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of the nonprofit better elections group FairVote finds that ranked choice voting (RCV) continues to be supported by a vast majority of voters who find it simple, fair, and easy to use. The findings come in the wake of the city’s third use of RCV in its June 2025 primary elections....
01 Jul, 2025
-
6 min read
A man filling out his election ballot.
Oregon Activist Sues over Closed Primaries: 'I Shouldn't Have to Join a Party to Have a Voice'
A new lawsuit filed in Oregon challenges the constitutionality of the state’s closed primary system, which denies the state’s largest registered voting bloc – independent voters – access to taxpayer-funded primary elections. The suit alleges Oregon is denying the voters equal voting rights...
01 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
Supreme Court building.
Supreme Court Sides with Federal Corrections Officers in Lawsuit Over Prison Incident
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 30 that federal prison officers and officials cannot be sued by an inmate who accused them of excessive force during a 2021 incident, delivering a victory for federal corrections personnel concerned about rising legal exposure for doing their jobs....
01 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read