GOP lawmakers outside challenged congressional district have no standing in appeal, SCOTUS says
GOP members of Congress from Virginia who live outside the state’s only majority black congressional district don’t have standing to appeal a decision striking down its creation, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in a unanimous opinion (PDF) by Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
The Republican lawmakers had intervened after Virginia declined to appeal a decision that found minorities had been packed into a snake-shaped district in violation of the Constitution. The GOP lawmakers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which asked for supplemental briefing on whether the lawmakers had standing.
In the meantime, a special master appointed by the district court developed a new redistricting plan, and the district court approved it. The Supreme Court previously refused to stay implementation of the new plan.
The intervenors had argued that the new redistricting plan could change the proportion of Democrats in their own districts and make it more difficult to win.
Breyer cited a lack of evidence supporting the assertions. “When challenged by a court (or by an opposing party) concerned about standing, the party invoking the court’s jurisdiction cannot simply allege a nonobvious harm, without more,” Breyer wrote. “Here, there is no ‘more.’ ”
The Supreme Court ruling leaves the new redistricting plan in place for the November election, according to a statement by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The special master who drew the plan has said it provides African American voters a reasonable opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice in two districts in the state, the statement says.
The case is Wittman v. Personhuballah.
Updated at 1:30 p.m. to include the Lawyers’ Committee statement.
