Detroit City Wire

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled to overturn a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that paved the way for the redrawing of 34 Michigan political districts before the 2020 elections.

The appellate ruling said the district voting lines favored Republicans and ordered the districts to be redrawn. The Supreme Court's Oct. 21 ruling means that the districts won't be redrawn until a 13-member commission redraws the lines before the 2022 elections. The commission is composed of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents.

In a recent thumbnail verdict, the Supreme Court said that federal courts should not oversee redistricting of political districts because the high court was unable to decipher when "political gerrymandering has gone too far."

The ruling follows the high court’s recent decision in June in a separate gerrymandering case that ruled "partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts."

In a majority decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote "excessive partisanship in districting leads to results that reasonably seem unjust. But the fact that such gerrymandering is incompatible with democratic principles' does not mean that the solution lies with the federal judiciary."

The disputed district maps were drawn in 2011 by a Republican-controlled Michigan legislature.