Question

Should partisan redistricting be permitted? Why or why not?

Answer 1

For example, redistricting can concentrate heavy support for an opposing political party in one district while spreading out one’s own support into several neighboring “swing” districts. In this way, parties can use cartography to gain an electoral advantage in an otherwise equal constituency.

This practice of redistricting district boundaries for political party gain, class gain, or to increase the likelihood of a political result, is known as Gerrymandering and dates back to the United States’ colonial era. “Gerrymander” is a portmanteau of the word “salamander” and the last name of the Massachusetts’ governor at the time, Elbridge Gerry, who signed into law a redistricting plan designed to benefit his political party in 1812. The newly-created district supposedly resembled the shape of a salamander and the humorous term has endured.[3]

Political Gerrymandering has been practiced by both parties at various levels ever since. Still, advanced computerized models and data analysis techniques have made the practice more effective and more prevalent than ever. Since Republicans have done very well in state and local elections over the past decade, it has been primarily Republicans who have been in position to practice this maneuver.

            After the 2010 census, Wisconsin Republicans, who has gained majorities in both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s office, redrew district maps to concentrate strong Democratic support into some districts while spreading Republican support across others, giving Republicans an electoral advantage.[4]

            A group of Wisconsin Democratic voters led by University of Wisconsin professor William Whitford[5], have challenged the Wisconsin redistricting plan, warning that permitting the redistricting plan would allow Republicans to maintain control of the state’s legislature for the foreseeable future. The state of Wisconsin argues that if the Supreme Court decides a partisan gerrymandering case, it will open the door to “unprecedented intervention in the American political process.”[6]

            For nearly 200 years, federal courts did not interfere with gerrymandering practices. Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote that “Courts ought not to enter this political thicket,” ruling that state legislative district composition was a non-justiciable political question, meaning that it should be left to the legislatures to decide.[7] However, in the landmark 1962 decision, Baker v. Carr, the Supreme Court reversed this trend and ruled that gerrymandering was unconstitutional when it was done to target or disenfranchise minority voters. In so doing, the Court announced the “one person, one vote” standard of American representative democracy.[8]