I've never heard that myself. Any lawsuit with regards to the Constitution or federal law start at the district courts, not SCOTUS. The Fourth Circuit is the intermediary between those two. I don't think any district court will have much relevance. I mention the Fourth Circuit as a whole in light of its strong liberal tilt and the current eight justice SCOTUS. If the Fourth Circuit were to rule on account of partisan influence, the result will stand in light of the new balance. If a liberal majority takes hold, I would expect SCOTUS itself to set any new standards. I think that unless a Republican assumes the Presidency next year, partisan redistricting is quite likely nearing its demise (and not a moment too soon).
Well as I understand it, the case is initially heard by a federal district court judge to see if there is any merit to the claim, and is referred to a 3 judge panel in that district to be resolved, and any appeals immediately go to the SCOTUS. I imagine this was done so issues were resolved both quickly and fairly.
Also, in regards to gerrymandering's future - The Maryland case I think is being viewed as a potential case to bring about a reliable test (I believe it proposes using popular vote v seats won as a rule) - This might be sufficient for a while at least. However.. I think part of the problem right now is not even a reliable test, but rather courts proceeding far too slowly and/or tolerating nonsense by the defendants. For instance, why is taking the Texas case so long that a new map won't be in place until at least 2018? There is no reasonable justification for that. Either the courts are screwing up unintentionally or intentionally, or the process is too cumbersome, but it doesn't take that many years to resolve a rigged map. Why did the federal court in Virginia even bother punting the issue back to the legislature to draw new maps? The court should always redraw the map(s) themselves if found to be gerrymandered - You can't trust the legislature to do this.
So I think this is going to be a continuing issue that will be unaffected by any potential tests they come up with. The courts need a mandate to resolve cases within 1 - 1.5 years
(and to rush it, if possible, if an election year is coming up) and to not give the legislature a chance to fix a map they rigged in the first place - It wastes a lot of time for a bad result that can easily be foreseen.
