Supreme Court strikes a blow for Arizona citizens

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to gift the Arizona Republican Party with several new seats in Congress.

The high court upheld the right of a citizen commission to draw congressional maps, rejecting Republican legislative leaders' opinion that only they (meaning the Legislature) can draw the lines.

"The people are the ultimate legislature," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote, in the majority opinion.

That sounds so good, I think I'll repeat it.

The people are the ultimate legislature.

No doubt, Andy Biggs is grinding his teeth into nubs morning, having hoped to improve his prospects of snagging a seat in Congress. Meanwhile, Kyrsten Sinema -- the GOP's No. 1 target -- is likely giving a sigh of relief.

And Ann Kirkpatrick? I wonder if she's second guessing her decision to challenge John McCain?

Today's Supreme Court ruling is a big win for voters and a shock to Republicans, who were so confident of a win that they'd already had hired a mapmaker. (Note to Legislature: who will be paying that bill? Surely not the citizens you sued.)

For decades, the Legislature drew congressional and legislative districts every 10 years. They'd head to the House basement, tack maps to the wall and proceed to plot out the most important details.

Like where they lived. And how to draw districts that ensure their best prospects for re-election and their party's best prospects for domination.

In 2000, Arizona voters had had enough. They overwhelmingly decided to take the map making duties out of the self-interested hands of the Legislature and give it to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The five-person citizen panel was charged with drawing districts based not upon incumbents live or how to cement another decade of dominance for a particular party, but upon criteria aimed at taking at least some of the politics out of the process.

Republicans liked the first set of maps, which resulted in the election of mostly Republicans to Congress. Democrats didn' like the maps, so they sued and Republicans vigorously defended the IRC.

"We think the commission did follow the constitution and created fair districts," then-Rep. John Shadegg said in 2003, referring to the congressional map.

A decade later, Republicans didn't like the new maps, so they sued, contending that only the Legislature can draw congressional districts.

So why the sudden epiphany that the 2000 law is unconstitutional? I'm guessing it's because Republicans felt like they got skunked with the 2011 congressional map.

That map created three competitive districts and Democrats snagged all three. (Republicans have since snatched one back, with last year's election of Martha McSally.) Where the Republicans controlled Arizona's congressional delegation 5-1 before the IRC, they now control 5-4 and were itching to redraw districts served by Democratic Reps. Kyrsten Sinema and Ann Kirkpatrick.

Arizona's redistricting system is far from perfect. We have too few competitive districts, thanks to the law's competing criteria used drawing the lines, and the commission is too small -- with only one independent to represent the state's largest bloc of voters.

But it's better than putting a Sharpie into the self-interested hands of politicians to draw their own districts, to essentially decide who they want to represent.

Voters long ago said they prefer it the other way around.

And one more time, because it's such a good line.

The people are the ultimate legislature.

This case, by the way, cost us about $3.6 million in legal fees, according to Mitch Martinson, who runs Arizona's Politics blog.