Governors want SCOTUS to intervene in voting row

(26 Mar 2019) Maryland's Republican Governor Larry Hogan and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger are urging judges to intervene to limit partisan gerrymandering.

"It is a national scandal of what's going on with the gerrymandering and the way our politicians draw the district lines," said Schwarzenegger.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority sounded wary of allowing federal judges to determine when electoral maps are too partisan, despite strong evidence that the political parties drew districts to guarantee congressional election outcomes.

The decisions in two cases the justices heard Tuesday, from Maryland and North Carolina, could help shape the makeup of Congress and state legislatures for the next decade in the new districts that will be created following the 2020 census.

In more than two hours of arguments over Republican-drawn congressional districts in North Carolina and a single congressional district drawn to benefit Democrats in Maryland, the justices on the right side of the court asked repeatedly whether unelected judges should police the partisan actions of elected officials.

"Why should we wade into this?" Justice Neil Gorsuch asked.

Hogan said, "This is an issue that both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of."

"In both cases it's wrong," he said.

"And it's one of the biggest problems we have in America. I think it's one of the reasons why we have so much divisiveness and dysfunction here in Washington."



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AP Archive,4202964,37d4a25524b22b61b40b269d24998fbc,US DC SCOTUS Gerrymandering,District of Columbia,United States,Arnold Schwarzenegger,Larry Hogan,Neil Gorsuch,Government and politics,