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The Supreme Court's decision this morning to hear Gill v. Whitford is good news for the millions of Americans currently being denied the right to elect representatives of their choosing thanks to partisan gerrymandering. By upholding the decision of a three-judge federal panel that the Wisconsin State Assembly map legislators approved following the 2010 census is an illegal partisan gerrymander the Court can end the excessive partisan manipulation of district lines across the country. Common Cause v. Rucho, a challenge to North Carolina's congressional map on partisan grounds, is also making its way through the courts and will be heard by a three-judge panel on June 26.

The Public Interest Law Center filed a lawsuit in state court today on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and individual voters challenging the state’s congressional districts as an illegal partisan gerrymander. League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is one of a series of suits nationwide challenging extreme partisan gerrymanders that have left millions of Americans with no opportunity to elect the candidates of their choice. Plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania suit argue that the state’s congressional map violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. Common Cause Pennsylvania, a leader in the Fair Districts PA coalition, played a key role in the recruitment of several individual plaintiffs. An individual plaintiff lives in each of the state’s 18 congressional districts.

Today at the Ohio Statehouse, the Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio Campaign Committee announced an official kickoff to the signature collection drive to put the issue on the ballot.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that North Carolina lawmakers unconstitutionally gerrymandered two of the state's congressional districts along racial lines. The decision affirms a lower court ruling in 2015 that ordered the districts to be redrawn.

Overnight, the Georgia Senate voted down House bill 515, a racial gerrymandering proposal that had been dropped at the end of session on short notice in the House and cleared through committee in minutes without public comment. Common Cause Georgia fought the bill from the outset and urged the Senate to vote it down on the grounds that significant numbers of Black voters would be packed into legislative districts with “safe” seats – thereby diluting their voting power to elect candidates of their choice - in order to move new white voters into Republican legislative districts that were carried by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential election.

Today, Common Cause Georgia urged the state Senate to oppose House bill 515, a gerrymandering proposal dropped at the end of session on short notice and cleared through committee in minutes without public comment. The letter to Senate leadership emphasizes that significant numbers of Black voters would be packed into legislative districts with “safe” seats – thereby diluting their voting power to elect candidates of their choice - in order to move new white voters into Republican legislative districts that were carried by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential election.