Press Release

Press Release  AG Healey Weighs in Against Partisan Gerrymandering in Supreme Court Case

Attorneys General Urge SCOTUS to Set Constitutional Limits on Anti-Democratic Redistricting
For immediate release:
3/08/2019
  • Office of Attorney General Maura Healey

Media Contact   for AG Healey Weighs in Against Partisan Gerrymandering in Supreme Court Case

Meggie Quackenbush

BostonAttorney General Maura Healey today joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court that argues the State of North Carolina engaged in unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering that undermines its citizens’ right to vote and weakens our democracy. 

In the brief, filed in Rucho v. Common Cause in support of the plaintiffs, a group of North Carolina voters, the attorneys general argue that North Carolina voting districts were deliberately redrawn for the purpose of keeping one political party in power and for no other justification than to maximize partisan advantage.

“Extreme partisan gerrymandering undermines the right to vote and weakens our democracy,” said AG Healey. “We have asked the Court to empower voters and end the transparent abuses of power we see today.” 

In the brief, the attorneys general argue that a lower court was correct in its decision to strike down a 2016 congressional map adopted by the North Carolina legislature, writing that the map “was invidiously intended to entrench a single party in power, it achieved that purpose and likely would continue to do so for the life of the plan, and the goal of partisan entrenchment was the only explanation for the extreme partisan skew of the map.”  

The attorneys general contend that extreme partisan redistricting harms fair elections by discouraging voter participation, increasing distrust in government, and reducing the responsiveness of elected representatives, and call on the Supreme Court to affirm the lower court’s judgment.

AG Healey previously joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general in September 2017 in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Gill v. Whitford, in which the State of Wisconsin challenged a 2016 decision that Wisconsin’s redistricting plan was unconstitutional. In that brief, the attorneys general argued that extreme gerrymandering of voting districts constitutes “intentional partisan entrenchment” and has no place in our political system. 

Today’s coalition was led by the attorney general from Oregon and joined by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.  

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Media Contact   for AG Healey Weighs in Against Partisan Gerrymandering in Supreme Court Case

  • Office of the Attorney General 

    Attorney General Maura Healey is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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