A call against gerrymandering

This is excerpted from an editorial by The Washington Post

Next month, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the 2011 redrawing of Wisconsin’s state legislative map by Republican lawmakers — a demonstration of how powerful technology allows partisan mapmakers to distort representation with ever-greater precision. Wisconsin’s Republicancontrolled legislature produced districts so unbalanced that, in 2012, Republicans won a supermajority in the state assembly even after losing the popular vote. And the state GOP continued to entrench that hold in 2014 and 2016.

Given that the case, Gill v. Whitford, concerns an egregious abuse of power to the advantage of Republicans, it’s heartening to see officials of that same party condemn Wisconsin’s map. In legal briefs, both Republicans and Democrats warn against the destructive effects of gerrymandering.

The arguments against extreme partisan gerrymanderbeyond ing focus on the practice’s offensiveness to constitutional promises of equal protection and free expression: Voters packed into skewed districts have less of a voice in the political process and are arguably penalized for their party affiliation. And in cases such as Wisconsin’s, technology allows legislators to create maps that essentially immunize the party in power from ever being voted out. The bipartisan briefs make clear how a practice designed to undercut democratic competition further degrades American politics by weakening public faith in government and pushing lawmakers away from compromise. This is not an issue of one party’s advantage over another — Democrats have also used gerrymandering against Republicans when convenient — but a matter of bipartisan concern.

Gerrymandering hurts our democracy. The judiciary cannot and should not be the sole solution to this crisis, but it has a valuable role to play in reassuring Americans that their votes matter.