Thread by @mcpli

Tuesday brings a big showdown on partisan gerrymandering at the Supreme Court - and it is hard to overstate how important it is. #fairmaps 1/

And that’s not just because because aggressive gerrymandering has grown and only stands to get a lot worse with advances in data and technology. #fairmaps 2/

Rather, it’s because of how stark the facts of the North Carolina case are.

Not only is the NC map wildly skewed in favor of Rs in a 50/50 state (that as recently as 2010 had a map that favored Ds 7-6), Rs blatantly said that creating that skew was their intent. #fairmaps 3/

While in other cases, lawmakers tried to hide behind various pretextual excuses, NC Republicans didn’t even bother. They said - on the record - that they intended a “political gerrymander” and put in writing that any map had to have 10 GOP districts. #fairmaps 4/

If SCOTUS somehow finds a way to punt on facts that stark, then the real danger is that lawmakers (Ds & Rs) will understand that to be a signal that they can do whatever they want. #fairmaps 5/

Indeed, a version of that already happened this decade because of the Supreme Court’s deadlocks in Vieth (2004) and LULAC (2006) - which lawmakers understood, right or wrong, as a signal that it was open season for gerrymandering. #fairmaps 6/

And Vieth and LULAC were not nearly as stark or blatant as what happened in NC in 2016. This really is the end of the road for the Supreme Court. #fairmaps 7/

Not only will a failure to act in the North Carolina case be a signal that there are no real limits when it comes to gerrymandering, it will be a signal that the courts have abdicated any checks & balances function and have essentially become political organs. #fairmaps 8/

The starkness of the cases before the Supreme Court ultimately leave me optimistic (albeit cautiously). But, in the end, nine people matter - and I am not one of them. We will see. #fairmaps 9/