This is very good news:
The state Supreme Court restored Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s legislative redistricting initiative to the Nov. 8 special election ballot Friday, boosting Republican hopes to redraw California’s political map before the end of the decade.
By a 4-2 vote — with a Court of Appeal justice on temporary assignment to the court casting the decisive vote — the justices overruled lower courts that had removed Proposition 77 from the ballot.
The decision was a huge victory for Schwarzenegger, reviving his flagging special-election effort.
Non-Gerrymandered congressional and legislative districts would be the greatest single reform to American politics since the Voting Rights Act, and it’s great that the Cals can make it happen.
How do you draw the lines, though? It’s no simple problem.
Indeed it is, because there’s some court precedent that suggests ethnic data has to be considered in drawing lines, meaning they can’t just be as square as possible.
The consensus seems to be that they should be much more square than they are, deviating just enough to make sure that minority communities are adequately represented. Since all ethnic groups are minorities in California now, I don’t know exacly how it works out.
So the Proposition calls for a neutral panel of judges to draw them, with an eye toward creating more competitive districts from a party perspective.