Now that the discussion has evolved to pragmatic reasons for judicial intervention in gerrymandering let us not forget the partisan nature of the judiciary itself.  The partisanship of the courts in these matters was made acutely aware to me following the 1990 census.  I litigated two concurrent reapportionment cases, one in the municipality of Rock Island, Illinois.  The city is also the county seat of Rock Island County which I also sued.  In the city case it was only about incumbent protection as it was a non-partisan city council and I prevailed even though the districts were of numerical similarity  The concurrent county case was also about incumbent protection but involved the two parties.  The Democrats controlled virtually every elected position in the county and the map was of their design.  The Democratic judge ended up approving a 13% population disparity between county board districts.  I believe that partisanship of the judiciary was the determining factor in the outcome.

 

Michael Richardson