Supreme Court reverse judges decision on redrawing districts. What does that mean for Michigan?

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - The Supreme Court's decisions handed down Thursday will have lasting implications on the American electorate and the country's political landscape. Two of their rulings involved the legality of partisan gerrymandering as well as the necessity of including a citizenship question onto the U.S. Census.

While the former decision was delivered with more certainty, the ladder rebuked lower court rulings, stating that political redistricting wasn't an issue that courts should rule on.

The mixed rulings have given residents in the country - and especially in Michigan - with mixed feelings. 

"Districts can be drawn to essentially gerrymander, or rig, outcomes of the election," said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Benson isn't pleased with the high court's ruling. The way she reads the decision is that politicians can decide for themselves how to district their states.

They sent a message to everyone drawing district lines in the future, 'do what you want, we're not going to pay attention," she said.

The 5-4 court ruling overturns a Michigan decision delivered last April that state lawmakers would have to redraw the state's districts by August, ahead of the 2020 election.

No longer.

"The Supreme Court said 'doesn't matter, we're not going to get involved in those questions anymore,' so case over," said Benson.

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Instead, while the 2020 election will be voted within current districts, they will be redrawn instead in 2021 by a 13-member team of randomly selected citizens in Michigan. That rule, which was approved during the 2018 midterm election, was voted on by residents in a ballot initiative. 

While that proposition received a clear majority, it was still viewed as a political move by liberal voters.

"I would have been (in support of it), I voted against it," said Rocky Raczkowski, chair of the Republican Party in Oakland County. I would have been if it had been a fair proposition. That proposition was written and run through the election process by the Democratic Party."