#SUPREME COURT OCTOBER 3, 2017 / 10:13 AM / UPDATED 29 MINUTES AGO

U.S. Supreme Court justices divided in major voting rights case

Andrew Chung
5 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared divided over whether to issue a ruling that would curb the ability of politicians to draw electoral districts purely on partisan lines in a major voting rights case out of Wisconsin.

Some of the conservative justices questioned whether Democratic voters challenging the maps drawn by Republicans in Wisconsin had legal standing to bring the case. But the potential swing vote, conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, asked tough questions of the state’s lawyers.

The liberal justices appeared more eager for the court to rule that partisan electoral maps could violate the U.S. Constitution. The justices heard about an hour of arguments in the case.

Wisconsin is appealing a lower court’s ruling that the electoral map devised by state Republicans had such extreme partisan aims that it violated the constitutional rights of voters.

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