[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday that Republican redistricting in the state was unconstitutional gerrymandering. The court stated that Act 43 [text], enacted by the Wisconsin Legislature [official website] in 2011, directly influenced the the results of the 2012 and 2014 elections. According to the court, 12 Wisconsin voters brought suit alleging Republicans of, “[t]wo gerrymandering techniques: ‘cracking’—’dividing a party’s supporters among multiple districts so that they fall short of a majority in each one’—and ‘packing’—’concentrating one party’s backers in a few districts that they win by overwhelming margins,’ in order to dilute the votes of Democrats statewide.” The court concluded that these techniques are “not explained by the political geography of Wisconsin nor [are they] justified by a legitimate state interest.” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel [official profile] said that he planned to appeal [statement].

Voting rights and issues have remained a constant topic in US courts. Advocacy groups in September filed a lawsuit challenging the redrawn boundaries [JURIST report] for North Carolina’s congressional seats. Also in September several organizations filed a federal lawsuit challenging Georgia’s voter registration system [JURIST report]. In April the Supreme Court unanimously upheld [JURIST report] an Arizona commission’s decisions regarding the redistricting of voting districts in the state.