U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholds bipartisan election redistricting commissions like Washington’s

A Supreme Court decision on Tuesday ensures Washington state’s bipartisan process for shaping its congressional districts will remain intact.

In the majority of U.S. states, state legislatures are responsible for redistricting and other election laws, but they do not hold the power without checks and balances . Concerns over political parties gerrymandering congressional districts when they have majority control have led some states to instate independent commissions to oversee elections redistricting.

In a 6-3 landmark decision, the court upheld that state legislatures are not the sole entities vested to make elections rules or draw congressional election maps.

The ruling concerned the “independent state legislature” theory, an interpretation of the Supreme Court’s Elections Clause that suggests the law forbids any nonlegislature government entities, including independent commissions, governors or courts, to alter a legislature’s actions on federal elections.

The court said state legislatures must operate under the same rules as all other government agencies, said Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University. This means any election law made by a state legislature is subject to judicial review by both state and federal courts.

“If they ruled opposite, it would reverse 200 years of our understanding,” Clayton said. “It would be shocking for the court to strip itself of the authority to review legislative decisions made in states.”

As of 2021, there were 15 states in which commissions had primary responsibility for drawing legislative district lines, according to a congressional report. And in 10 states, commissions had primary responsibility for drawing congressional lines.

In Washington, one such commission has redrawn legislative and congressional district boundaries every decade after each U.S. Census since 1990.

The Washington State Redistricting Commission is made up of four voting members: two Democrats and two Republicans who are picked by the leaders of their respective party caucuses. A fifth nonvoting member of the commission serves as the chair and oversees its operations.

The commission last redrew congressional boundaries in 2021.

The goal of an independent redistricting commission is to avoid gerrymandering and prioritize the interests of residents, former state redistricting commission chair Sarah Augustine said.

“I definitely believe independent commissions are more effective,” she said.

“Because if it’s successful, you’re going to see much less drastic changes over time. You’re not going to see those big swings, so it’s less disruptive for the residents.”

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed the argument that the Elections Clause divests state constitutions of the power to enforce checks against the exercise of legislative power.

Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Sonia Sotomayor joined the chief justice’s majority opinion.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

The case, Moore V. Harper, was filed by the GOP-controlled legislature in response to a ruling by the North Carolina Supreme Court saying the state legislature redrew congressional district lines for the 2020 election to favor one party.