The U.S. Supreme Court Monday slapped down the last-gasp bid of Colorado Republicans to resurrect their disgraceful 2003 “midnight gerrymander.”
It was a unanimous verdict. We can only hope that the GOP leaders who cooked up this illegal plan will take the hint – even partisan politics must be played by the rules.
The Colorado legislature was divided in 2002 when it tried to draw new congressional lines in the wake of the 2000 census. After Senate Democrats and House Republicans failed to agree on a plan, Denver District Judge John Coughlin draw a map that featured four districts – the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th – with Republican pluralities. Two districts, the 1st and 2nd, had Democratic majorities. The final seat, the brand new 7th district, featured equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters.
Republican Bob Beauprez captured the new 7th District in 2002 by just 121 votes. But after the GOP regained undivided control of the legislature in 2002, it tried to redraw the lines to lock its 5-2 edge into electoral concrete. GOP bosses led an effort to ram the plan through in three late-night sessions – thus the label “midnight gerrymander.”
The gerrymander never was implemented because the state Supreme Court ruled it violated a provision of the Colorado Constitution that stipulates the legislature can only redraw district lines if it acts within the two-year window following a federal census and the subsequent general election. The high court threw out a Democratic gerrymander in 1934 for the exact same reason.
Rather than accepting defeat, Republicans waged a fruitless fight to overturn the decision – despite a unanimous 1993 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that federal courts must defer to state authority on redistricting when a state has addressed the issue in timely fashion. After district and appeals courts upheld the state action, Republicans made a final foray to the Supreme Court, only to be slapped down 9-0 on Monday.
Despite these repeated vindications of the Colorado court’s ruling, John Andrews – presiding when the Senate ruthlessly trampled on an explicit constitutional requirement that bills be read aloud if a member requests it – tried to purge the court last fall under the guise of “term limits.” Voters refused to go along. (We can only hope that Andrews won’t now try to term-limit the U.S. Supreme Court.)
Meanwhile, public disgust at the unethical gerrymander contributed to Democratic gains in the GOP-leaning 3rd District and the even-handed 7th, leaving the GOP in the delegation minority, 3-4. Colorado Republicans have paid a high price for their high-handed – and – illegal tactics of 2003.
