Victory for Democracy as Court Sides with Voters over 'Self-Dealing Legislators'

In a decision hailed as a “major victory for voters,” the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld an Arizona ballot initiative, adopted by voters in 2000, which took redistricting power away from elected politicians and gave it to a nonpartisan commission.

The 5-4 decision (pdf), which saw Justice Anthony Kennedy serving as the swing vote, allows redistricting commissions to remain in place across the country and in turn works to curb the practice known as gerrymandering—the manipulation of electoral districts so as to favor one political party.

“The Supreme Court has resoundingly upheld the right of We the People to take redistricting out of secret backrooms run by politicians and into the public light of citizen-driven commissions.”
—Kathay Feng, Common Cause

“This decision reaffirms the people’s authority to rein in self-dealing legislators,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, which submitted an amicus brief in the case. “The Constitution is not a barrier to states who want to address the problem of partisan gerrymandering.”

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What’s more, according to the Brennan Center, the ruling “also leaves intact dozens of other election laws enacted by ballot initiative, legislative referendum, or constitutional amendment.” The center provided an interactive map detailing the kind of measures that were at risk.

“Today, voters win,” declared Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for Common Cause, which also submitted a brief in support of the independent redistricting commission. “The Supreme Court has resoundingly upheld the right of We the People to take redistricting out of secret backrooms run by politicians and into the public light of citizen-driven commissions.”

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote the opinion for the majority. “The people of Arizona turned to the initiative to curb the practice of gerrymandering,” she wrote, “and, thereby, to ensure that Members of Congress would have ‘an habitual recollection of their dependence on the people’.”