Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing legislative district lines to favor a political party, an incumbent, or a particular group of voters. The term dates from 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a districting plan with a salamander-shaped district.

The term was coined by a Boston newspaper that combined Governor Gerry's name with "salamander" to describe one of the new districts on a map it considered grotesque. The practice is much older than the word. Drawing district lines for political advantage has been a feature of American politics since the first congressional elections. The Constitution leaves the time, place, and manner of holding congressional elections to the states, subject to congressional override under Article I, Section 4. States have generally drawn their own districts. After each decennial census, states must redraw congressional and state legislative maps to reflect population shifts. The party in control of state government at the time of redistricting often draws lines that protect its incumbents and concentrate the opposing party's voters into a small number of safe districts. Two techniques predominate. "Packing" concentrates opposing voters into a few districts so they win those by huge margins but lose everywhere else. "Cracking" splits opposing voters across many districts so they fall short in each. The Supreme Court has held that racial gerrymandering violates the Equal Protection Clause and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. It has also held, in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019, that purely partisan gerrymandering claims are nonjusticiable in federal court, leaving them to state courts and political processes. Several states have adopted independent redistricting commissions to take the process out of the hands of legislators. Others have not. The basic political incentive to draw lines for advantage is unlikely to disappear.