At first glance, few things scream “gerrymander” like splitting the country’s largest historically black university in two. That’s what happened at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in 2016; a school that was once in the state’s 12th Congressional District is now in the 6th and 13th. The school is in Greensboro, where 40 percent […]
Editor’s note: Earlier iterations of this post and podcast were first published on Sept. 28, before Wisconsin’s gerrymandering case was heard by the Supreme Court. Now that it has been heard by the court, we’ve updated both the post and podcast. Is partisan gerrymandering constitutional? And if not, how is it to be measured? Those […]
Gerrymandering has become a catch-all for what’s wrong with the American political system. The way we draw legislative districts takes the blame for partisan polarization, uncompetitive elections, marginalizing minorities and even rigging elections in favor of one party or the other. Gerrymandering has received so much scorn lately, you could be forgiven for thinking all […]
Is partisan gerrymandering constitutional? And if not, how is it to be measured? Those are the questions at the heart of one of the most consequential Supreme Court cases of the year, which the justices will hear next week. How the court answers those questions in the case, Gill v. Whitford, has the potential to […]