Dems turn to state courts as political 'weapon' amid 2024's gerrymander blitz: experts

State leaders, most notably Democrats, are increasingly turning to state courts as a political tool to help pass elections laws and redistricted maps ahead of the 2024 election.

"So, they then switched to state courts. And they started filing claims, like in North Carolina, for example, Pennsylvania, claiming that political gerrymandering that favored – in those cases – the Republican Party violated the state's constitution," he said. 

Historically, redistricting plans are approved by state legislatures, with Democrats easily installing their plans in Democrat-controlled legislatures "whenever redistricting would come up," said von Spakovsky, who previously served on the Federal Election Commission. But when Republicans in states across the country began gaining control of legislatures and worked to redistrict the lines to favor the GOP, Democrats filed lawsuits in an effort to stop them.