Derek Muller, "Symposium: No closer to consensus" -- Supreme Court of the United States Blog

June 20, 2018 | An article by Professor Derek Muller, "Symposium: No closer to consensus," has been published in the Supreme Court of the United States blog (SCOTUSblog). The article examines the Supreme Court decision in Gill v. Whitford, a partisan-gerrymandering case, that the plaintiffs failed to show they had suffered an injury that a federal court could remedy.

Excerpt from "Symposium: No closer to consensus":

Gill v. Whitford began as a blockbuster election-law case and ended (this time) as a federal-courts decision with a hint of trial strategy and evidence. It also left open the possibility of a transformational view of the First Amendment for future partisan-gerrymandering cases.

In 2016, a three-judge federal court found that Wisconsin's state legislative map drawn in 2011 was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Many hoped that the Supreme Court could provide a majority opinion articulating a standard for lower courts to handle such claims — past attempts at securing a majority had been elusive. But it wasn't meant to be.