High court ruling shows way to end NC gerrymandering

Majority Republicans in states such as North Carolina, where GOP leaders got to redraw legislative and congressional districts following the 2010 census, may feel a little disquiet over the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that held as constitutional Arizona’s use of an independent commission to redraw congressional districts. In Arizona, that’s going to mean that current maps are used in next year’s elections.

Basically, the Republican-run legislature in Arizona brought legal action against the state’s commission, claiming the legislature was improperly excluded from the redistricting process. But the high court, in a ruling that will affirm commissions in other states, said the commission was in effect a legislative body and thus was legally empowered.

The Arizona GOP must have had dreams of doing as North Carolina’s Republicans did when they got their hands on redistricting maps, namely gerrymandering districts to make them favorable to their party. It worked. But there are some disturbing questions, also in litigation, as to whether Republicans crammed black voters into a handful of districts to make more districts whiter and thus more agreeable toward Republican candidates.

Independent commissions are the enlightened solution, a way to remove politics from the redistricting process, at least to some degree. They make sense and they make for better, more representative districts that withstand the test of time. Good redistricting doesn’t mean one party gets an advantage, but that both parties have a fair shot.

Independent commissions aren’t about partisan advantage, but about fairness. That ought to be something that finds clear favor with Democrats and Republicans. Sadly, these days in North Carolina, that is not the case.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 7:01 PM with the headline "High court ruling shows way to end NC gerrymandering."