Introduction

11/05/24

Every member of the US House of Representatives, state legislators, and local legislators are elected from districts. However, today, this process, has diverted from representing the people and instead has been manipulated for political strategy

This happens through a process called Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering ” is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. ” Legislators can use different methods to manipulate the votes

Cracking: spreading voters of a certain demographic among various districts in order to reduce that demographic’s influence in an election

Packing: concentrating many voters of one demographic into a single electoral district to reduce their influence in other districts.

Biased redistricting allows politicians to choose voters.

Gerrymandering has long been an issue–Nationally, extreme partisan bias in congressional maps gave Republicans a net 16 to 17 seat advantage for most of last decade. Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania alone — the three states with the worst gerrymanders in the last redistricting cycle — accounted for 7 to 10 extra Republican seats in the House.

But this isn’t strictly a republican issue either; gerrymandering has the ability to empower or tear apart any party. In Maryland, for instance, Democrats used control over map-drawing to eliminate one of the state’s Republican congressional districts.

Regardless of which party is responsible for gerrymandering, it is ultimately the public who loses out. 

In the past, gerrymandered maps could be taken to the Supreme Court to be ruled on there, however, back in 2019, the Supreme Court shut the courthouse door to challenges to partisan gerrymandering under the U.S. Constitution in Rucho v. Common Cause. The Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t provide clear legal standards for courts to apply in gerrymandering cases, but state courts could fill the legal void. “Provisions in state statutes and state constitutions,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “can provide standards and guidance for state courts to apply.”

However, last November, republicans won two seats on the NC Supreme Court, giving it a conservative majority. In February, the court relied on a rarely used procedural rule to rehear the 2022 partisan gerrymandering case Harper v. Hall, and reversed its prior ruling on April 28.

Reversing Harper with a new court majority only around a year after it was settled raises questions about the rule of the law, as courts are becoming more polarized.

Rule of the law: The rule of law is a durable system of laws, institutions, norms, and community commitment that delivers four universal principles-accountability, just law, open government, and accessible and impartial justice. https://worldjusticeproject.org/about-us/overview/what-rule-law

This is an example of the instability gerrymandering produces, and the House capture that results in reversing past rulings. This back and forth only increases overturning.