--- title: John McCain: SCOTUS Must Create Partisan Gerrymandering Rule description: John McCain called on the Supreme Court to create a new rule for determining the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering canonical: https://time.com/4968285/john-mccain-sheldon-whitehouse-gerrymandering-supreme-court/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-04T00:05:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:43:08.411Z article:section: Politics og:title: McCain Urges Supreme Court to 'Return Control of Our Elections to the People' og:description: The Supreme Court heard arguments on a major gerrymandering case og:url: https://time.com/4968285/john-mccain-sheldon-whitehouse-gerrymandering-supreme-court/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb26116b95aa84da1/6988df36cf40a83bf8c4987b/gettyimages-852101568.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senate Republican healthcare bill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: McCain Urges Supreme Court to 'Return Control of Our Elections to the People' twitter:description: The Supreme Court heard arguments on a major gerrymandering case twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb26116b95aa84da1/6988df36cf40a83bf8c4987b/gettyimages-852101568.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Urges Supreme Court to 'Return Control of Our Elections to the People' by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Oct 4, 2017 12:05 AM UTC  During votes and Senate policy luncheons, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks to reporters concerning Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) proposed Republican healthcare bill to replace the Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington DC Tuesday September 19, 2017. During votes and Senate policy luncheons, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks to reporters concerning Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) proposed Republican healthcare bill to replace the Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington DC Tuesday September 19, 2017.Melina Mara/The Washington Post—Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Oct 4, 2017 12:05 AM UTC Sens. [John McCain](http://time.com/4955325/donald-trump-john-mccain-affordable-care-act/) and Sheldon Whitehouse doubled down on their bipartisan effort encouraging the [U.S. Supreme Court](http://time.com/4961416/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-term-controversy/) to create a new standard for determining the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. The Republican and Democratic senators reaffirmed their efforts Tuesday as the highest court in the U.S. [heard oral arguments](https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral%5Farguments/argument%5Ftranscripts/2017/16-1161%5Fbpm1.pdf) for a key case that could determine the future of partisan gerrymandering in the U.S. Gerrymandering is the drawing of electoral district lines to favor typically the party in power. “The Court can clean up a cause of America’s crisis in confidence in our democracy, protect our elections from wildly partisan ‘bulk’ gerrymandering, and return control of our elections to the people,” McCain and Whitehouse said [in a joint statement](https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=E7CA78EE-FC68-4E98-8826-26AE40E39F79) on Tuesday. “We hope the Court will.” The case, _Gill v. Whitford_, comes from Democrats in Wisconsin who believe boundaries created in the state were made to benefit Republicans, which the Democrats argue is unconstitutional. In the past, the Supreme Court created a standard to assess whether race was used too much in the remapping of districts. However, the court has not yet created a standard to assess the same issue in its relation to partisan politics. McCain and Whitehouse filed [a friend-of-the-court brief](https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/%5Fcache/files/931d5a3b-d388-4f90-96ee-0daf265ebd05/mccain-whitehouse-whitford-amicus-brief---9.5.17.pdf) for the case last month, which said “this case implicates the effective functioning of American representative democracy.” “The American people do not like gerrymandering. It leaves them feeling powerless and discouraged; that their votes are wasted and voices silenced,” they said Tuesday. “They see it rigging our political system to favor special interests.” “Elections ought to belong to the people,” the senators added. “Increasingly uncompetitive and unrepresentative districts have a corrosive effect on the American democratic process.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4968285/john-mccain-sheldon-whitehouse-gerrymandering-supreme-court/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4968285/john-mccain-sheldon-whitehouse-gerrymandering-supreme-court/"},"headline":"John McCain Urges Supreme Court to 'Return Control of Our Elections to the People'","datePublished":"2017-10-04T00:05:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:43:08.411Z","description":"The Supreme Court heard arguments on a major gerrymandering case","url":"https://time.com/4968285/john-mccain-sheldon-whitehouse-gerrymandering-supreme-court/","keywords":["Senate","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb26116b95aa84da1/6988df36cf40a83bf8c4987b/gettyimages-852101568.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb26116b95aa84da1/6988df36cf40a83bf8c4987b/gettyimages-852101568.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Republican healthcare bill","caption":"Senate Republican healthcare bill","creditText":"Melina Mara/The Washington Post—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4968285/john-mccain-sheldon-whitehouse-gerrymandering-supreme-court/","name":"John McCain Urges Supreme Court to 'Return Control of Our Elections to the People'"}}]}] ```