Top Calif. court revives Schwarzenegger ballot item

Yahoo News reports In a victory for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's Supreme Court overturned two lower courts on Friday and put back on the ballot a voter initiative that will determine who draws up California's state legislative districts. If voters approve Proposition 77 in November, it would take the responsibility for drawing the state's political map out of the hands of California's Democratic-controlled legislature and give it to a panel of retired judges. Schwarzenegger hopes the idea will enable more moderate politicians to win legislative districts that in the past have been carefully divided into Democratic and Republican strongholds.

I still think that the best solution is to have district lines drawn by a computer program designed to make districts as compact as possible, yet use major streets and geographical elements as boundaries, and not let computer programs, judges, or legislatures attempt to draw boundaries to aid one party or another, or achieve any other "objective", but it is certainly good to get it out of the legislature's hands.