USA Today: Supreme Court agrees to wade into politically explosive issue of election maps drawn for partisan advantage

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court agreed Friday to re-enter the explosive debate about the way congressional and state legislative districts are drawn, instantly turbo-charging what had been a relatively sleepy docket of cases.

Much as they might have liked to avoid it, the justices had little choice but to accept requests from North Carolina Democrats and Maryland Republicans that they reconsider federal district court decisions striking down congressional district maps as unconstitutional.  …

North Carolina’s congressional map looms as the newest test. The facts aren’t even in dispute: State lawmakers in the relatively “purple” state, which swings between Democrats and Republicans in statewide elections, declared their intentions on camera. The map splits the nation’s largest historically black college down the middle between two districts.

“Partisan gerrymandering is not just a Republican problem or a Democrat problem, it is a politician problem,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at Common Cause, a plaintiff in the North Carolina case. “Politicians have shown time and again that they cannot resist the temptation to draw maps that protect their power and party at the expense of the American people.”