Court Hears Election Map Issue

The Supreme Court used Pennsylvania’s congressional map Wednesday to consider whether the redrawing of election districts had become too political -- a case that could affect voters nationwide.

At issue was a 19-district map drawn last year by the GOP-controlled Legislature that forced three Democratic lawmakers out of office.

The high court debated whether drawing districts to favor one party over another could be constitutional or a political matter best left for states.

A handful of other states, including Texas and Florida, also are grappling with the fairness of such a congressional gerrymandering system.

“How unfair is unfair?” asked Justice Antonin Scalia.

“If a party is getting two-thirds of the seats with less than half of the vote, I submit that’s unfair,” answered Paul M. Smith, who argued the case on behalf of a group of Democrats.

Republicans hold 12 of Pennsylvania’s 19 congressional seats, but Democrats have a 445,000 statewide voter edge over the GOP.

Previously, the Republicans had 11 seats to the Democrats’ 10. Because of the state’s slower-than-average population growth, Pennsylvania lost two of its 21 seats in Congress after the 2000 census.

The case is important because of the high stakes involved in boundary-drawing for political parties. States must redraw boundaries after every census to reflect population shifts, and legislatures and political parties have begun using sophisticated computer analyses to ferret out the best places to pick up more seats.

If the court makes it easier to challenge maps, some states could be forced to redraw their districts, which could threaten Republican control of Congress.