Partisan Gerrymandering Lawsuits are Dead Forever
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – June 27, 2019: Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today regarding partisan gerrymandering claims (Rucho v. Common Cause 18-422).
“The Supreme Court wisely chose to reject federal overreach into the states’ constitutional authority to conduct redistricting,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said. “Partisan foes of the federalist balance of power have yet again sunk millions of donor dollars. The 15th Amendment gives federal courts the power to stop racial discrimination. The Constitution doesn’t give federal courts the power to pick partisan outcomes.”
Read the Foundation’s prior case filings on the matter here. The Foundation made several arguments as an amicus party in recent months.
The original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment does not support political gerrymandering causes of action. [The authors] were elected from districts with far greater disparity between statewide political preferences and the partisan composition of legislative delegations than those districts challenged [in the North Carolina action].
Allowing a federal cause of action for partisan gerrymandering upsets the Constitutional balance. States have the general power to manage their own elections subject to explicit and well-defined exceptions, like violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The lower court’s decision is an affront to the important federalist balance and should be rejected.
The Constitution grants States the power over elections. To the States, the Framers granted exclusively the authority to control who may vote in federal elections … Congress’s power to regulate how elections are held, however, is superior to the States’ power to do the same only when they differ.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation is the nation’s most active public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and ensuring the integrity of American elections – bringing more than a dozen cases to enforce voter list maintenance obligations and inspection rights under federal law in federal courts across the nation in addition to serving as amicus in more than a dozen voting law cases. The Foundation also works with election officials and policymakers to improve the integrity of elections.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm dedicated to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. ###