Advocates for redistricting reform scored a crucial victory today when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission. Passed by the voters in 2000, in an effort to remove legislators’ bias from the redistricting process, the commission was imperiled by the GOP’s rabid desire to abolish it so that they could gerrymander the state’s congressional districts to give themselves a partisan advantage.
This case has broad implications for other electoral reform efforts in several other states. As with Arizona, California has its own independent redistricting commission that would have almost assuredly been found unconstitutional had the plaintiffs prevailed. Similarly, Florida voters passed anti-gerrymandering rules in 2010 (the legislature’s redistricting plan is subject to ongoing litigation in state court), and redistricting measures have appeared on the ballot in other states like Ohio.

At issue in this case was the meaning of the Article One constitutional clause governing the rules regarding congressional elections, which states the following:
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