Gerrymandering Is an American Political Tradition
The Supreme Court was right not to strike down the practice, as distasteful as it is.
Now the question goes back to the legislature.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergMaybe I’m in the minority, but I’m glad partisan gerrymandering survived at the Supreme Court. I don’t much like the practice, but I’ve made my peace with the notion that my likes and dislikes are not the correct guide to constitutional interpretation. And although the route traveled by the thin majority in Rucho v. Common Cause is a bit slippery, the justices seem to me to have reached the right destination.
A bit of background. In most states, legislatures draw electoral districts, whether for Congress or for the legislature itself. This has long been understood to present a terrific temptation to partisanship — that is, to drawing district lines in ways that favor the dominant party. The habit of referring to this practice as “gerrymandering” is always traced to 1812 in Massachusetts, but what’s striking about even a quick trip through the newspapers at the time is how swiftly the term caught on. By 1813, it was in use throughout the country, whenever an editor didn’t like the way districts were drawn.