The Politics of Gerrymandering
Judicial Background and Possible Legislative Action
Partisan gerrymandering, “the drawing of legislative district lines to subordinate adherents of one political party and entrench a rival party in power,” is an issue that has vexed the Federal courts for more than three decades. On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court, by a 5-to-4 vote, ruled that claims of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering are not subject to Federal court review because they present non-justiciable political questions, removing the issue from the Federal court’s purview. In Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) and Lamone v. Benisek (2019), the Court viewed the Elections Clause of the Constitution as solely assigning disputes about…
