Gerrymandering: How Is This Legal?

Hello fellow Americans! So I’ve decided I’m going to start implementing a little vocab review of words that people in politics use all the time…but you have no clue what they’re talking about. Today’s word, if you hadn’t guessed, is gerrymandering.

It’s a word that’s been drifting in and out of my regular podcasts because, well, it’s a current problem. Recently, there have been debates on whether it’s simply partisan in nature or if there is racial component. Let’s start with the basic definition, explore the history, and review the applications in today’s climate.

Gerrymander (v)

To divide or arrange (a territorial unit) into election districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage over the other. (Merriam-Webster)

History Behind the Word:

The actual word “gerrymander” came from the name of Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. In 1812, Gerry’s administration put into place a law defining new state senatorial districts. The law consolidated the Federalist Party vote in a few districts. This messed with the way the districts would naturally fall and gave disproportionate representation to Democratic-Republicans (yeah, that was a thing at one point). Funny enough, the outline of one of these districts was thought to liken a salamander. Which when you think about it, is a rather ridiculous shape for a district. Anyway, at that point Elkanah Tisdale (rightly annoyed by this kerfuffle) illustrated a satirical cartoon to be published in the Boston Gazette, which graphically transformed the district into “The Gerry-mander.”

At this point, I bet you’re curious about good ol’ Gerry’s districts. Check them out here.

Gerrymandering in Context

So basically, every time a census rolls around the districts have to be redrawn. This happens to take into account population shifts so that the general population is properly represented. Since we have another census coming up in 2020, gerrymandering has been a popular topic of discussion. The crazy thing is though; the controlling party at the time this redrawing of the lines goes down has control over what they look like…hence the sketchiness.

Gerrymandering has been a popular topic of discussion. The crazy thing is though; the controlling party at the time this redrawing of the lines goes down has control over what they look like…hence the sketchiness.

Now, what I’ve discussed so far is partisan gerrymandering. Another point being presented is that the practice can easily turn into Racial gerrymandering. There have been dozens of cases over the last few decades accusing districts of participating in racial gerrymandering. If you’re not sure what that looks like, it means that the way a district was redrawn was based on race and not partisanship. This could harm OR benefit minority groups, depending on the distribution of the population of the district. Either way, a district being drawn based on race is not good, and the Supreme Court agrees.

In a series of cases in the 1990s, the court worked to eliminate instances of racial gerrymandering from occurring. According to Vox:

“In a series of 1990s decisions, including Shaw v. Reno, Miller v. Johnson, and Bush v. Vera, the Supreme Court struck down certain majority-minority districts because their shapes were so “irregular” or “bizarre” that they could only have been drawn for racial reasons.”

Andrew Prokop, 2018 – Vox.com

This article provides a FANTASTIC explanation of what gerrymandering looks like. It truly helped me write this piece, so thank you and bless.

How Does This Apply Today?

In light of the 2020 Census, the courts have been tasked with evaluating their role in policing gerrymandering. In a ruling on June 26th 2019, the Supreme court stated that federal judges cannot police partisan gerrymandering. However, that doesn’t mean that gerrymandering is constitutional. Out of this also came that racial gerrymandering is not permissible, and federal courts can and will police these instances. Whether that happens or not I guess we’ll see!

In the mean time, what do you think about gerrymandering? Happy? Indifferent? Pissed?

Well, if you’re pissed (which if you’re not, it’s fine. Do you. But I am) there are some things you can do:

Check out FairVote, a non-partisan advocate for voting rights and equal opportunity for all.

You can also find more information on advocacy at Common Cause.