Solving the thorny problem of gerrymanders would transform our entire political landscape.
John Oliver, on Last Week Tonight on Sunday, April 9, took on gerrymandering as one of the biggest political issues in the US, underlying all others because it determines who controls various legislatures, and therefore what legislation can even be brought up for consideration. It is expected to go before the Supreme Court in its next session, starting in September.
Along the way, Oliver pointed out that the "earmuff" district shown at the top of this Diary is legal under the Voting Rights Act, which authorizes the creation of majority-minority districts. This district brings two Latino areas near Chicago together, and separates them from Black neighborhoods, so that both the Latino and Black communities can elect politicians that appeal to their interests. I got that diagram from a Washington Post article, America’s most gerrymandered congressional districts.
It's complicated.
Oliver explained that the Wisconsin gerrymandering case (formally, Whitford v. Gill), is the most important such case, but not exactly why that is. So I am going to do that below. The case has been through the Federal District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, which ruled that Wisconsin had engaged in egregious partisan gerrymandering. The state appealed directly to the Supreme Court, bypassing the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Oliver got that far with the case, and then broke into an amazing song-and-dance number on equal voting rights for all to end his show.
But there is more to this story.