2L Julia Shmilovich was named a winner of the National Law Review Writing Contest for her article exploring legal strategies to control in political gerrymandering.

The article, “Whitford and the Elusive Standard for Political Gerrymandering,” examines a case from Wisconsin in which plaintiffs contend the state’s existing legislative districting map reveals a pattern of partisan gerrymandering that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.  

Citing a prior opinion by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy related to partisan gerrymandering, Shmilovich offers an analysis of a the plaintiffs’ proposed standard for creating districts that would protect voters’ rights equally.

Shmilovich predicts that the proposed standard would be unlikely to satisfy Kennedy’s requirement that new districting classifications would limit the need for court intervention.