New York Times Quotes Trevor Potter: Prominent Republicans Urge Supreme Court to End Gerrymandering

Breaking ranks with many of their fellow Republicans, a group of prominent politicians filed briefs urging the Supreme Court to rule that extreme political gerrymandering — the drawing of voting districts to give lopsided advantages to the party in power — violates the Constitution. The Supreme Court, which has never struck down an election map as a political gerrymander, will hear arguments on October 3 in a case challenging the voting districts for Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled State Assembly.

The plaintiffs challenging Wisconsin’s map are represented by the Campaign Legal Center. Its president, Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said he was “pleased, but not surprised, to see many of America’s most accomplished Republican leaders urging the Supreme Court to rein in excessive partisan gerrymandering.”

“They know that elected officials’ legitimacy comes from being freely chosen by voters, not through seizing power from voters to keep themselves in control,” added Mr. Potter, who was appointed to the commission in 1991 by President George Bush.

Trevor Potter also leads the Political Law Group at Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered.

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Excerpt taken from the article “Prominent Republicans Urge Supreme Court to End Gerrymandering” by Adam Liptak for The New York Times.