Washington (AFP) – Republicans lost a battle Wednesday at the US Supreme Court, which rejected their claims that a new voting map for the southwestern state of Arizona illegally favored Democrats.
A ruling in favor of the challengers could have impacted redistricting efforts that affect elections around the country.
But in a unanimous decision, the eight justices upheld a federal court decision upholding Arizona legislative districts drawn by the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission following the 2010 US Census.
The commission was created years earlier by a 2000 voter initiative, and it led to overpopulated Republican-leaning districts and underpopulated Democratic ones.
Citing the one person, one vote doctrine, the challengers had claimed that the end result was diluted Republican votes in the overpopulated Republican districts.
The state legislature is controlled by Republicans in both houses.
In delivering the court’s opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer stressed that the US Constitution “does not demand mathematical precision” when it comes to delimiting legislative districts, which must be of nearly equal population.
The ruling rejected Republicans’ claim that the plan would favor Democrats.
“We believe that appellants failed to prove this claim because, as the district court concluded, the deviations predominantly reflected Commission efforts to achieve compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act, not to secure political advantage for one party,” Breyer wrote.
He cited Supreme Court precedent that allows population deviations below 10 percent. The redistricting commission’s plan called for an 8.8 percent deviation.
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