Affected are at least nine congressional districts, 10 state Senate districts and 15 House seats, but several other adjacent ones could also have to be redrawn because of a ripple effect caused by redrawing lines.

Senate Majortity Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, indicated Republicans will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is weighing separate gerrymandering cases in North Carolina and Maryland. A decision on those cases is likely in June and could preempt the Michigan ruling.

"We'll know in June what's really going on," Sen. Pete Lucido, R-Shelby Township, told Bridge on Thursday.

His district is among those targeted in the suit and would have to be redrawn if the ruling stands. Like other senators, he was elected to a four-year term in November. The ruling could theoretically cut those terms in half. The duration of those terms -- and whether those half terms would count toward term limits -- is one of the big uncertainties following the bombshell ruling.

August 2019: Voters Not Politicians asks to intervene in Michigan GOP redistricting suit

"Right now, it’s a lot of he said-she said," Lucido said. "But at the end of the day, when the Democrats were in charge, they drew the lines. We didn’t file lawsuits. But now that Republicans are in charge, everything is unfair."

The judges, however, specifically rejected such a characterization, saying their ruling did "not rely on isolated off-hand comments" but was based instead on extensive evidence from statistical experts, testimony from legislative mapdrawers, Republican legislators and staffers, political operatives and a "wide-range of documentary evidence," most notably a cache of emails (often written on private email accounts) among Republican lawmakers and insiders showing an undisguised effort to favor the GOP incumbents and harm Democrats in drawing district lines in 2011 "with discriminatory intent."

The judges ordered special elections for the Senate to coincide with reguarly scheduled elections, so they "would not impose a heavy burden on Michigan’s normal electoral process."

"While senators may be disappointed that their four-year terms will be reduced to two years, the sentiment of the legislators elected under an unconstitutional apportionment plan does not outweigh the constitutional rights of millions of Michiganders to elect their senators under constitutional maps," the ruling read.

State Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox said the party “will support an appeal to uphold the will of Michigan voters.”

'Dem garbage'

The ruling follows a trial in U.S. District Court in Detroit in February and the discovery of reams of emails from 2011 showing that Republicans drew districts in secret and bragged about crafting them to strengthen their advantage.

The districts have consistently allowed Republicans to maintain strong majorities in Lansing, even though they typically receive roughly 50 percent or less of total votes across the state.

During the trial, George Washington University political scientist Christopher Warshaw testified the Michigan Senate maps “have more pro-Republican bias than 99.7 percent of all state Legislature maps across the country in the last 45 years.”

The judges agreed, writing the 2011 maps are a “political gerrymander of historical proportions."

"The (districts) ... represented the culmination of a calculated initiative by Michigan’s Republican legislators and map-makers, in the 2011 redistricting cycle, to deliberately draw Michigan’s legislative districts to maximize Republican advantage and, consequently, disadvantage Democratic voters, Democratic candidates, and the Democratic Party," the judges wrote. "The partisan advantage that Michigan lawmakers achieved through the Enacted (redistricting) Plan persists to this day."

Clay was joined in the ruling by another Clinton appointee, Denise Page Hood, and Judge Gordon Quist, who was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush.

Eric Lupher, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council that has studied gerrymandering, said the evidence in the trial clearly showed Republicans worked to create districts to their advantage. Among others, emails from GOP staffers bragged about trying to "cram Dem garbage " in southeast Michigan districts and tweak borders to satisfy the “the obvious objective — putting dems in a dem district and reps in a gop district" and "increase the black population in the black districts."

"They had a smoking gun [with the emails]," Lupher told Bridge. "It wasn’t whether the districts in Michigan were gerrymandered, but whether it was a judicable case." Michigan's congressional delegation is split 7-7 following the 2018 election, while Republicans have a 22-16 majority in the Senate and 58-52 majority in the House. Special elections would appear to benefit Democrats, who often receive as many or more votes as Republicans in statewide contests. But the 2020 elections would coincide with a presidential election, and Lupher said he's unsure if Democrats could gain another seat in Congress even with new maps. Matt Grossman, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University. said there are no guarantees for Democrats. “Most people are expecting a very high turnout in 2020, on both sides,” he said. “Compared to the electorate that senators usually face, this would be a much larger electorate.” Jeff Timmer, a GOP consultant who helped draw the maps and testified for Republicans in the case, tweeted that drawing new maps would be problematic. New maps would be drawn using 2010 Census data," Timmer tweeted. "Hundreds of thousands of people dying, born, immigrating, and emigrating in past 9 years. Any resulting districts would have bogus populations and profoundly violate one man one vote."

Republicans had sought for months to dismiss and delay the lawsuit, brought on behalf of the League of Women Voters by former Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer. The GOP had argued that the districts were not only drawn to exacting legal standards , but by now ordering them redrawn was a waste of time and money.

The districts are set to be redrawn anyway following the 2020 Census after Michigan voters last year approved a referendum that allows a citizen panel to create the boundaries, rather than politicians. Thursday's ruling, if upheld, would move up that timeline to include 2020 elections.

The Thursday ruling is far more favorable to Democrats than a settlement earlier this year by new Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the League of Women Voters, which would have redrawn only 11 House districts. The court rejected that settlement, however, ruling that Benson didn’t have the power to craft such a deal. She inherited the case from her Republican predecessor at the Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, who is now a state senator representing northern Oakland County and whose district will have to be redrawn. Benson issued a statement Thursday saying, “I’m committed to working with the Legislature, citizens and the court to ensure the new districts comply with our U.S. Constitution.”

Reactions along party lines

Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, issued a statement saying "we expect there to be a lot of legal process ahead of us."

House Minority Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, said “Michiganders have known for years that our current legislative districts silenced their voices at the ballot box." "The court’s opinion is damning," she said. The League of Women Voters issued a brief statement saying it was pleased by the ruling and looking forward to "fair districts."