Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1161_dc8f.pdf
Page Number: 5

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash­
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 16–1161 
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BEVERLY R. GILL, ET AL., APPELLANTS v.
 
WILLIAM WHITFORD, ET AL. 

ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR 
THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN 

[June 18, 2018] 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  ROBERTS  delivered  the  opinion  of  the

Court. 

The State of Wisconsin, like most other States, entrusts 

to its legislature the periodic task of redrawing the bound­
aries  of  the  State’s  legislative  districts.    A  group  of  Wis­
consin  Democratic  voters  filed  a  complaint  in  the  District
Court,  alleging  that  the  legislature  carried  out  this  task 
with an eye to diminishing the ability of Wisconsin Demo­
crats to convert Democratic votes into Democratic seats in 
the  legislature.    The  plaintiffs  asserted  that,  in  so  doing,
the  legislature  had  infringed  their  rights  under  the  First
and Fourteenth Amendments. 

But  a  plaintiff  seeking  relief  in  federal  court  must  first
demonstrate that he has standing to do so, including that
he  has  “a  personal  stake  in  the  outcome,”  Baker  v.  Carr, 
369 U. S. 186, 204 (1962), distinct from a “generally avail­
able grievance about government,” Lance v. Coffman, 549 
U. S.  437,  439  (2007)  (per  curiam).  That  threshold  re­
quirement  “ensures  that  we  act  as  judges,  and  do  not 
engage in policymaking properly left to elected representa­
tives.”  Hollingsworth  v.  Perry,  570  U. S.  693,  700  (2013).