One of the plaintiffs in the case, Wendy Sue Johnson, said she is "grateful the Supreme Court will hear our case and listen to our stories of how we are harmed". The case, Gill v. Whitford, concerns Wisconsin's legislature and its gerrymandering efforts in 2011.
"This case represents the first time in 31 years that a lower court struck down a district plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander", the center added. That year Republicans won 60 of 99 State Assembly seats even while losing the statewide vote. The Republican congressional district with the largest margin of victory was in the Third District, with GOP Walter Jones winning 67 percent of the vote.
Previous year a district court ordered Wisconsin to produce a new, less partisan map in time for the 2018 election. In a 2-1 ruling, the court found that the districts were drawn in order to minimize the influence of Democratic votes, and were "designed to make it more hard for Democrats, compared to Republicans, to translate their votes into seats", the majority opinion concluded.
The justices' Monday order suggests they'll hear the case this fall.
"Partisan and racial gerrymanders drive too many Americans from our democratic process because citizens feel their votes don't count and sadly in states like Wisconsin and North Carolina today many of those citizens are absolutely right", said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, an organization pushing for redistricting reform.
"So they compare that district-by-district to the statewide total, and that gives them this efficiency gap measure".
The Supreme Court will take up a fight over parties manipulating electoral districts to gain partisan advantage in a case that could affect the balance between Democrats and Republicans in many states. While Republicans are right to criticize Democrats for their practices of gerrymandering, the current maps are arguably more egregious.
The commission oversees redistricting for both state legislative offices and congressional districts.
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His family said Alhajali "came to the United Kingdom because he had ambitions and aims for his life and for his family". He added: "Sadly, for many families, they have lost more than one family member and my heart truly goes out to them".
The Supreme Court has been reluctant to tackle partisan gerrymandering and sort through arguments about whether an electoral system is rigged or, instead, a party's political advantage is due to changing attitudes and demographics.
This case provides the Court with the opportunity to rule in favor of free and fair elections.
The issue of gerrymandering - creating districts that often are oddly shaped, with the aim of benefiting one party - is central to the debate.
States redraw districts for House seats in Congress and for legislative districts in state legislatures. However, the Supreme Court has made a decision to take on the controversial issue starting in October.
"We've gotten better at gerrymandering with the aid of computers and all sorts of digitized maps and very specific information about where all the different population segments are located", King told FOX 17.
The same was the case for some Republican-dominated districts where there wasn't a Democrat challenger in the most recent general election. Democratic voters are clustered in cities such as Milwaukee and Madison, while Republican voters are more evenly spread out.
"Our redistricting process was entirely lawful and constitutional, and the district court should be reversed", Schimel said.
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