DETROIT – Michigan's political maps will stay as they are, according to a decision from the Supreme Court, which said claims of partisan gerrymandering are not legal in nature, but political.
Districts will stay as they are until 2022, when a nonpartisan commission, which was voted into existence last year, will take up the issue. In Lansing, it has always stood that those who control the state legislature control the drawing of Michigan's political maps, defining the boundaries of congressional and state legislature districts.
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Those maps had to be able to withstand legal challenges. While they did withstand the legal bar, the argument has been they are still gerrymandered, meaning the Republicans drew maps to help them and to dilute the Democrats' power.
A lower court had agreed to ordering the legislature to redraw everything. But, in a split decision, the Supreme Court said no. They said the issue is not in their legal purview, but is a political decision.
In 2022, for the first time, what is supposed to be a bipartisan commission will take up the drawing of the maps -- taking it out of the hands of the legislature.