This follows hard upon a ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court overturning that state’s congressional and state maps as violations of the state constitution.
And, of course, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year replaced the 2011 congressional map produced by Harrisburg with one drawn by a special master, saying the old map violated the state constitution’s language guaranteeing the individual citizen’s right to take part in a free and fair election.
What’s more, a Wisconsin’s legislative map is the subject of a long-running, closely watched court fight that made it the U.S. Supreme Court, then was bounced back down to a lower federal court.
Is it something in the water that leads to all this ferment over gerrymandering in the Great Lakes states?
More likely, it has to do with all these states having been key targets in the Republican Party’s Project REDMAP strategy, which focused on winning state elections in key swing states in 2010 so that GOP elected officials could drive the redistricting process in those state capitols in 2011.
Project REDMAP was a great success, leading to Republican gains in U.S. House and state legislative races in the early part of this decade. But some of that success is being unraveled by a skein of court rulings likes these recent ones.
Here’s more on the Ohio ruling:
Cleveland.com
ABA Journal
Salon.com
