An anti-gerrymandering rally outside the Florida State Capitol, April 19, 2022 (WCTV)

UPDATE, APRIL 20:

The Republican-led legislature in Florida has approved a Congressional map implementing gerrymandering, the manipulation of electoral boundaries to favor a particular political party[/twitter]
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The map sharply curtails Black voting power, eliminates two of four districts where Black voters have been able to elect the candidate of their choice.

The manipulation should enable Republicans to win 20 of the state’s 28 Congressional districts, a four seat increase from the 16 they currently hold.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trumpist who is seeking re-election this year and planning a possible Presidential run in 2024, is expected to sign the bill soon. Lawsuits challenging the maps are then likely.

Black Democratic legislators halted the final debate of the bill on Thursday morning, in a sit-in with prayers and chants. The Republican leadership reconvened the session and held a final vote even as the protest continued.

UPDATE, MARCH 24:

Backing Republicans in Wisconsin’s legislature, the US Supreme Court has blocked redistricting that would have added a State constituency in which Black voters are the majority.

The unsigned decision reversed a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that selected a map for State elections drawn by Gov. Tony Evers, sending the case back to the state court.

The majority said the state court had not considered carefully enough whether the 1965 Voting Rights Act — weakened by the Supreme Court’s conservatives in a series of decisions — required the addition of the Black-majority district.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, dissented: “The court’s action today is unprecedented….The court today faults the State Supreme Court for its failure to comply with an obligation that, under existing precedent, is hazy at best.

The Court did reject a challenge from five Republican congressmen to the US Congressional map adopted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, also prepared by Evers.

Wisconsin’s legislative maps have been prominent for their gerrymandering, packing minority voters into a few districts to limit the power of their vote, since aggressive redistricting by a Repubican majority elected in 2010.

Gov. Evers created his own commission to draw new maps based on the 2020 census figures. The Republican-majority legislature ignored them, sending the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The US Supreme Court blocks gerrymandering — the manipulation of electoral boundaries to favor a particular political party — by Republican-controlled legislatures in two states.

In recent years, a series of Supreme Court decisions have weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act and its protections against discrimination, and it had upheld an Alabama map accused of racial bias. But on Monday, the justices approved court-imposed maps in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, overturning the lines drawn by GOP legislators.

See also Supreme Court Restores Alabama Voting Map Accused of Racial Discrimination

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Restrictions on Voting Rights

Under the court-approved maps, Democrats have a better chance of winning seats in Congress.

There was a warning sign over future cases. At least four conservative justices indicated that they might later rule against the power of state courts to change the boundaries set by state legislatures, albeit not in time to affect the 2022 Congressional elections.

Justice Samuel Alito insisted, “There must be some limit on the authority of state courts to countermand actions taken by state legislatures when they are prescribing rules for the conduct of federal elections.”

In North Carolina, the State Supreme Court overruled the legislature’s map that effectively gave the GOP at least 10 of the state’s 14 House seats, in a state equally divided between Democratic and Republican voters.

The court-approved map sets up six safe seats for each party, with two competitive.

In Pennsylvania, the State Supreme Court approved a map giving Republicans nine fairly safe House seats and Democrats eight.

Each party currently holds nine seats, but the state loses a seat next year after reapportionment from the 2020 census.