The Independent View: The Supreme Court and Independent Redistricting Commissions

A political battle is raging in Arizona that could have major ramifications in California.

Arizona Republican legislative leaders have challenged their state’s independent redistricting commission. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in March, and if the justices strike down Arizona’s commission, political experts predict there would be an immediate legal effort to undo California’s own independent redistricting commission.

Arizona’s Republican-controlled Legislature would immediately gain the power to redraw the state’s congressional lines. California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature might be given the same power.

This all started when Arizona Republicans filed a federal lawsuit after that state’s redistricting commission drew new congressional districts in 2012. Arizona’s commission has been in place since 2000, but Democrats won five of the state’s nine congressional seats three years ago. It was then that Arizona Republicans spoke up, saying the U.S. Constitution’s Election Clause gives state legislatures the power to determine “times, places and manner” of congressional elections.

If the Supreme Court strikes down Arizona’s commission, it wouldn’t automatically mean California’s would die, too. That would take a successful lawsuit, likely filed in U.S. District Court, said University of Chicago law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos. But Stephanopoulos, who specializes in election law, said “the suit would have a very good chance of succeeding.”

That’s because in Arizona, the state Legislature has some power in selecting that state’s redistricting commission members. Arizona’s redistricting commission was created when voters approved a 2000 ballot initiative. California voters in 2008 followed suit, approving a ballot initiative that created a 14-member citizens redistricting commission. But in California, the state Legislature plays a much smaller role in selecting the commissioners.

With a precedent-setting Supreme Court ruling that says legislatures have the power to draw congressional districts, legal experts say California’s commission wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving.

Just how the new districts would look, how soon they could be in place, or whether Gov. Jerry Brown would veto such an effort in favor of keeping the redistricting commission’s congressional district-drawing power in place, is unknown. Speculating has become a sort of parlor game among politicians and political watchers.

California voters spoke clearly. Sacramento politicians in smoke-filled back rooms should no longer get to choose their voters by drawing partisan districts. Partisan redistricting creates career politicians and robs voters of the ability to keep their leaders accountable.

With the possibility of the Supreme Court throwing out Independent Redistricting Commissions, what will it do to the current states trying to put this Initiative & referendum on future ballots?