The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that four challengers did not have legal standing to file suit to try to overturn a 2002 redistricting plan imposed by a judge. When Colorado legislators were unable to redraw the congressional map after the 2000 census, Colorado District Judge John Coughlin imposed a plan. The four citizens had argued that the judicially imposed plan “violated the [Elections Clause] of the U.S. Constituiton by depriving the state legislature of its responsibility to draw congressional districts.”‘ In rejecting the citizens right to bring the law suit, the Supreme Court said that private citizens lacked standing to bring such suits, only state governments can sue over redistricting matters.
“The only injury plaintiffs allege is that the law -specifically the Elections Clause- has not been followed. This injury is precisely the kind of undifferentiated, general grievance about the conduct of the government that we have refused to countenance in the past,” said the Court.
The current redistricting plan remains in place until 2010.
The case is Lance v. Dennis, 06-641.
