The New Mexico Supreme Court has held “that a partisan gerrymander claim is justiciable” under the state constitution. Grisham v. Van Soelen, 539 P.3d 272, 289 (N.M. 2023).
According to the court, a claim for partisan gerrymandering is cognizable under the state constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. Id. (citing N.M. Const. art. II, § 18). To prove the claim, a plaintiff (1) must show “that state officials’ predominant purpose in drawing a district’s lines was to entrench their party in power by diluting the votes of citizens favoring its rival,” and (2) “must establish that the lines drawn in fact have the intended effect by substantially diluting their votes.” Id. (quoting Rucho, 139 S. Ct. at 2516 (Kagan, J., dissenting)). “[I]f the plaintiff[] make[s] those showings, the State must come up with a legitimate, nonpartisan justification to save its map.” Id. (quoting Rucho, 139 S. Ct. at 2516 (Kagan, J., dissenting)).[1] The court will only strike down “egregious” partisan gerrymanders. Id. at 285.
Applying this standard, a trial court upheld New Mexico’s congressional map for the 2020 redistricting cycle. According to the court, the map disparately treated Republican voters but did not “rise to the level of an egregious gerrymander” because the one election held under the map thus far produced a close result. Republican Party of New Mexico v. Oliver, No. D-506-CV-202200041, slip op. at 12–13 (N.M. Dist. Ct. Oct. 6, 2023), aff’d mem., No. S-1-SC-40146, 2023 WL 8182964 (N.M. Nov. 27, 2023).
No constitutional or statutory provision expressly outlines the process for remedying an illegal partisan gerrymander, and the New Mexico Supreme Court has not had an opportunity to consider a remedy for such a gerrymander since it has yet to find one.
Endnote
[1] The New Mexico Supreme Court is the first state supreme court to adopt Justice Elena Kagan’s framework for proving a partisan gerrymandering claim. See Yurij Rudensky, Status of Partisan Gerrymandering Litigation in State Courts, Brennan Center for Justice (Dec. 18, 2023), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/status-partisan-gerrymandering-litigation-state-courts.