California might get an independent re-districting committee

[Surlethe]

Aren't Congressional districts drawn by state legislatures? If so, if Congress makes such a threat, the state legislatures might respond by redrawing Congressional disctricts to unseat House incumbents.

[Guardsman Bass]

Aren't Congressional districts drawn by state legislatures? If so, if Congress makes such a threat, the state legislatures might respond by redrawing Congressional disctricts to unseat House incumbents.

They could do that, but keep in mind that it would basically be a game of chicken - would the states buckle first over the loss of federal funding, or the Congress?

Of course, this is unlikely to happen at the national level, anyways.

[RedImperator]

What a Congress ought to do (but good luck getting it) is pass a bill cutting off all federal funding to states that don't have a nonpartisan or "split-partisan" committee that does re-districting. That way, you get around the idiots at the state level who are going to be gung-ho against anything that might threaten their little kingdoms without having to do the fight of a national level constitutional amendment.

That's overkill. Congress, from what I can tell by my readings, could in fact mandate Congressional districts be drawn by non-partisan or bi-partisan committees (preferably the former), and enforce it by refusing to seat members elected from gerrymandered districts.

[Guardsman Bass]

What a Congress ought to do (but good luck getting it) is pass a bill cutting off all federal funding to states that don't have a nonpartisan or "split-partisan" committee that does re-districting. That way, you get around the idiots at the state level who are going to be gung-ho against anything that might threaten their little kingdoms without having to do the fight of a national level constitutional amendment.

That's overkill. Congress, from what I can tell by my readings, could in fact mandate Congressional districts be drawn by non-partisan or bi-partisan committees (preferably the former), and enforce it by refusing to seat members elected from gerrymandered districts.

They could, but you'd almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court on whether or not that is a legitimate reason to unseat a representative/senator. That's failed before.

[RedImperator]

What a Congress ought to do (but good luck getting it) is pass a bill cutting off all federal funding to states that don't have a nonpartisan or "split-partisan" committee that does re-districting. That way, you get around the idiots at the state level who are going to be gung-ho against anything that might threaten their little kingdoms without having to do the fight of a national level constitutional amendment.

That's overkill. Congress, from what I can tell by my readings, could in fact mandate Congressional districts be drawn by non-partisan or bi-partisan committees (preferably the former), and enforce it by refusing to seat members elected from gerrymandered districts.

They could, but you'd almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court on whether or not that is a legitimate reason to unseat a representative/senator. That's failed before.

It's failed in the past when voters have sued to force the states into non-partisan redistricting; SCOTUS ruled, essentially, that it's not a violation of the 14th Amendment. Congress, however, has exclusive power to certify the election of its own members under Article I, Section 5, and previous SCOTUS cases have established it has the power to add requirements not listed under Article I, Section 2. If they passed a law requiring non-partisan districting, and then refused to sit legislators from states which did not comply with that law, it would be perfectly within its rights. The lawsuits would likely come before the election, with states challenging Congress's right to mandate non-partisan districts. Unless the court's head was totally up its ass, they'd lose.

[cosmicalstorm]

This is one of the most ridiculous aspects of the American "democracy" that I know of, it makes my head hurt every time

[Guardsman Bass]

UPDATE:

Sorry to necro a bit, but from what the Los Angeles Times Interactive Proposition Monitor is pointing out, this just barely might pass. Assuming the California Legislature doesn't find a way to gut it (and they probably will try), this will have a massive impact on state-wide Californian elections when implemented.