U.S. Supreme Court
Apr. 13, 2016
Why a unanimous decision in voting districting case?
One of the potentially most important cases of the U.S. Supreme Court term was decided April 4, and it did nothing to change the way in which voting districting is done in the United States.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
One of the potentially most important cases of the U.S. Supreme Court term, Evenwel v. Abbott, was decided April 4, and it did nothing to change the way in which voting districting is done in the United States. The court reaffirmed that state and local governments may draw election districts on the basis of total population. Most surprisingly, the result was unanimous, 8-0, in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Why the unanimity?
Prior to the 1960s, many state legisl...
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