What is gerrymandering? How did the game of political power develop?
When John Adams wrote in 1776 his vision of a representative law-making assembly for the nascent republic, he… Announce “It should be an accurate microcosm of people in general.”
How the people’s representatives are chosen in the United States’ elected body, Congress, has been a topic of debate almost ever since. One of the founders, James Madison, He almost lost his place In the first conference because of the hand of a competitor in the design of the Madison area. Today, the process of redrawing congressional maps in favor of a particular party or candidate – known as gerrymandering – dominates the political landscape. President Donald Trump started the current partisan battles by encouraging allies in state legislatures to redraw maps ahead of the typical redistricting timeline in order to favor Republicans, sparking a counter-effort among Democratic lawmakers.
Gerrymandering is expected to remain in the spotlight as redistricting efforts face challenges in court, and as politicians maneuver to position their parties ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. On November 18, a panel of federal judges blocked new congressional maps drawn by Texas in August, saying they were subject to racial gerrymandering. Unlike partisan gerrymandering, redistricting along racial lines is illegal. The state of Texas appealed the matter to the Supreme Court. (The Supreme Court will rule this term on a separate case that could result in significant partisan redistricting if a key provision of the Voting Rights Act is struck down.)
Why did we write this?
Attempts to control the drawing of congressional districts in favor of a party or candidate date back to approximately the founding of the country. This year’s wave of redistricting has sparked renewed interest in what gerrymandering is and how it works.
A lawsuit is also challenging California’s new congressional maps. Voters this month temporarily suspended the state’s independent redistricting commission in favor of new maps to add five Democratic House seats to the state’s delegation. The Department of Justice claims the new districts are based on race.
Mr. Trump continues to urge statewide Republicans to redraw their maps. This week, it was brutal He criticized Republican lawmakers in Indiana who dropped their redistricting efforts. Six states have changed their congressional maps this year, and at least seven others have considered them according to The National Conference of State Legislatures, which notes that states redistricted this year “at rates not seen since the 19th century.”
Here’s the history behind this centuries-old practice, how it works, and why it remains a controversial part of American politics.
What are the origins of fraud?
The term “gerrymandering” originated in Massachusetts in 1812. The governor at the time, Elbridge Gerry, signed a bill allowing the state’s voting districts to be redrawn as a way to ensure that his party, the Democratic-Republicans, would maintain its power in future elections.
Boston Gazette coined this termthe governor’s last name pairs with criticism that the new (and oddly drawn) areas resemble salamanders. Jerry did not win re-election that year. However, his manipulation of the map allowed the Democratic-Republican Party to win 29 seats out of 40 in the Legislative Council.
Although gerrymandering and redistricting are similar, they are different. Redistricting is required every decade under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution to ensure congressional districts conform to population shifts. Gerrymandering is a form of redistricting intended to benefit one candidate or party.
How has gerrymandering been used in the United States?
There are two main ways in which cheating can help swing an election: packing and crushing.
Mobilization occurs when supporters of a party or individual politician are concentrated in a central area. Division is the opposite: voters are spread across multiple regions with the aim of reducing the influence of the opposing party.
As the nineteenth century progressed, gerrymandering also occurred. After the Civil War and the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing black men the right to vote, an aggressive era of gerrymandering began. In Southern states, it became a tactic of racial oppression until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited states from discriminating on the basis of race during redistricting.
Other notable examples of gerrymandering include the redrawing of North Carolina’s 12th Congressional District in the 1990s, known as the “I-85 District” for its line that roughly parallels the Interstate Highway, and Maryland’s 3rd District, which in the 2000s was nicknamed the “Praying Mantis.”
In recent decades, technological advances have created new methods for state legislators to determine lines based on voting data and mapping software, creating thousands of potential maps. “The computer has become an integral part of gerrymandering,” says Nancy Beck Young, a historian at the University of Houston.
What efforts have been made to combat fraud?
While most states leave the redistricting process in the hands of politicians, some have made efforts to shift control of the process into more neutral hands. In 2000, it was Arizona One of the first countries Establishing an independent citizen committee to help redraw legislative districts in the state.
today, Seven states Use such committees to redistrict congressional districts (with California pausing), according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to these efforts, a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases in the 1960s began cracking down on gerrymandering in what was called the “redistricting revolution.”
The Supreme Court’s landmark 1962 decision in Baker v. Carr allowed federal courts to intervene in state appointment disputes. This was followed in 1964 by Westbury v. Sanders, which held that congressional districts should be drawn by approximately equal populations, and introduced the phrase “one person, one vote.” That same year, Reynolds v. Sims dictated that state legislatures must be proportionate to population.
The Voting Rights Act has been used successfully in efforts to challenge gerrymandering, as in 1984 when A panel of federal judges ruled Redistricting in North Carolina discriminated against black voters.
The core of the Voting Rights Act, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, Section 5 was – which stipulates that some jurisdictions must obtain approval from the Department of Justice or the US District Court for the District of Columbia for proposed voting changes, and ensure that the changes are non-discriminatory.
Section 5 and part of Section 4 of the law were struck down by the Supreme Court in its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder. The ruling effectively ended the federal pre-approval process for states proposing jurisdictional plans that could be challenged as discriminatory.
Based on the legal framework of this ruling, the Supreme Court is scheduled to decide Louisiana v. Calais by June. If the justices decide the case early in their term, it can I set off in a stampede As states race to redistrict electoral districts before next year’s midterm elections.
The case targets Section 2, the primary facet of the Voting Rights Act that protects minorities after the court’s 2013 decision, because it prohibits election rules or practices that could deny or limit the voting rights of minorities. After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Louisiana v. Calais last month, many court watchers expect the justices to narrow the scope of Section 2. The government argues that the Voting Rights Act was not meant to last indefinitely, and that using race to gerrymander conflicts with the 14th and 15th Amendments.
Regarding partisan gerrymandering, the 2019 Supreme Court decision in Rucho v. Common Cause held that federal courts do not have the authority to review partisan gerrymandering claims, leaving it up to the states to decide.