History of Gerrymandering: Difference between revisions
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|title=History of Gerrymandering in America | |||
|description=A historical overview of gerrymandering in the United States, from the 1812 Massachusetts “Gerry-mander” to modern redistricting battles, Supreme Court rulings, racial and partisan mapmaking, data-driven district design, and reform efforts. | |||
|keywords=gerrymandering, redistricting, partisan gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering, voting rights, Supreme Court, Baker v. Carr, Reynolds v. Sims, Rucho v. Common Cause, redistricting reform, democracy, election maps | |||
|image=File:Placeholder.png | |||
|image_width=300 | |||
|image_height=200 | |||
|type=article}} | |||
[[Category:Democracy]] | |||
[[Category:Voting Rights]] | |||
[[Category:Election Reform]] | |||
[[Category:United States Political History]] | |||
[[Category:Redistricting]] | |||
**NOTOC** | |||
== History of Gerrymandering in America == | |||
=== Origins of Gerrymandering === | |||
Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to favor one political party, group, or interest. The term comes from an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting plan signed by Governor Elbridge Gerry. Critics said one oddly shaped district resembled a salamander, leading to the famous political cartoon and the word “gerrymander.” | |||
Although the name dates to 1812, political manipulation of district lines has deeper roots in American politics. Early politicians quickly learned that control over district boundaries could shape representation, protect incumbents, weaken opponents, and influence legislative power. | |||
=== Redistricting and Representation === | |||
Redistricting is the regular process of redrawing electoral districts, usually after each census, to reflect population changes. In principle, redistricting is meant to preserve equal representation. In practice, it has often been used as a partisan weapon. | |||
Two common techniques are “packing” and “cracking.” Packing concentrates opposing voters into a small number of districts so their votes are wasted in landslide victories. Cracking spreads opposing voters across several districts so they cannot form a majority anywhere. Together, these tactics can allow one party to win more seats than its share of the vote would normally justify. | |||
=== The One Person, One Vote Revolution === | |||
For much of American history, courts were reluctant to intervene in districting disputes. In Colegrove v. Green in 1946, the Supreme Court declined to police malapportioned congressional districts, treating the issue as largely political. | |||
That changed in the 1960s. Baker v. Carr opened the door for federal courts to hear reapportionment cases. Wesberry v. Sanders required congressional districts within a state to have roughly equal populations. Reynolds v. Sims extended the “one person, one vote” principle to state legislative districts. These decisions transformed redistricting law and forced states to redraw outdated maps. | |||
=== Partisan Gerrymandering and the Courts === | |||
The Supreme Court struggled for decades with partisan gerrymandering. In Davis v. Bandemer in 1986, the Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims could be heard in federal court, but the justices failed to agree on a clear standard for judging them. In Vieth v. Jubelirer in 2004, the Court again wrestled with whether courts could identify unconstitutional partisan maps. | |||
The major turning point came in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019. The Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering claims presented political questions beyond the reach of federal courts. This decision did not approve partisan gerrymandering, but it shifted many reform battles to state courts, state constitutions, ballot initiatives, independent commissions, and Congress. | |||
=== Racial Gerrymandering and Voting Rights === | |||
Gerrymandering is also closely tied to race. Racial gerrymandering occurs when districts are drawn primarily around race in ways that violate constitutional protections. Shaw v. Reno in 1993 created modern racial-gerrymandering doctrine by allowing challenges to districts where race was the dominant factor in map design. | |||
At the same time, the Voting Rights Act has required states in some circumstances to draw districts that give minority voters a fair opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. This has created a complicated legal boundary between lawful minority-opportunity districts and unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. | |||
Modern cases often involve both race and party because voting patterns in the United States are frequently racially polarized. Courts have had to decide whether lawmakers used race directly or claimed they were using party affiliation as a proxy. | |||
=== Modern Data-Driven Gerrymandering === | |||
Modern gerrymandering became more powerful with computer mapping, voter databases, geographic information systems, and increasingly precise political data. After the 2010 census, sophisticated redistricting strategies allowed mapmakers to target neighborhoods, voter blocs, and communities with much greater precision than in earlier eras. | |||
Projects such as REDMAP showed how control of state legislatures could shape congressional maps for a decade. Since congressional and state legislative maps are often drawn by politicians who benefit from them, redistricting can become a self-protecting system where elected officials choose their voters rather than voters choosing their representatives. | |||
=== Mathematical Measurement and Redistricting Tools === | |||
Researchers, journalists, and reform groups have developed new ways to measure gerrymandering. These include partisan bias, efficiency gap, compactness scores, ensemble analysis, simulated maps, and outlier detection. Tools such as PlanScore, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, and redistricting atlases help compare enacted maps with alternative possibilities. | |||
However, no single metric can fully capture gerrymandering. A district may look compact but still produce a strong partisan advantage. A map may perform differently depending on voter geography, turnout, and election year. For this reason, modern analysis often uses multiple measures together. | |||
=== Mid-Decade Redistricting and Recent Battles === | |||
Traditionally, redistricting happens after the census every ten years. In recent years, however, mid-decade redistricting has become a more visible political fight. Some states have considered or adopted new maps between census cycles, raising concerns that partisan mapmaking could become a continuing arms race rather than a once-a-decade process. | |||
After Rucho, state courts became especially important. Some state constitutions provide stronger protections against partisan gerrymandering than the federal Constitution. As a result, lawsuits in state courts, independent commissions, and ballot reforms have become central parts of the modern redistricting landscape. | |||
=== Reform Efforts === | |||
Reformers have proposed several ways to reduce gerrymandering. These include independent redistricting commissions, stronger state constitutional standards, transparent map-drawing rules, public participation, ranked criteria for communities of interest, and limits on partisan data use. | |||
Some reforms have shown promise by reducing direct control by partisan lawmakers. Yet reform remains uneven across the country because redistricting rules vary by state. In some places, legislatures still control the process; in others, commissions or courts play a larger role. | |||
=== Conclusion === | |||
The history of gerrymandering in America shows a long struggle over political power, representation, race, and democracy. From the 1812 “Gerry-mander” to modern computer-generated maps, district boundaries have repeatedly shaped who wins elections and whose voices are heard. | |||
Court decisions in the 1960s established equal-population principles, but later rulings left partisan gerrymandering largely outside federal judicial review. Today, the fight over fair maps continues through state courts, commissions, public advocacy, data tools, and reform campaigns. Gerrymandering remains one of the most important issues in American democracy because it affects not only election outcomes but also the basic fairness of representation. | |||
**TOC** | |||
=====John Oliver on Redistricting: ‘Putting a Thumb on the Scale of Who Gets Elected’===== | =====John Oliver on Redistricting: ‘Putting a Thumb on the Scale of Who Gets Elected’===== | ||
[https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/29/john-oliver-redistricting-gerrymandering-louisiana | Adrian Horton | The Guardian | June 29, 2026] | [https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jun/29/john-oliver-redistricting-gerrymandering-louisiana | Adrian Horton | The Guardian | June 29, 2026] | ||
Latest revision as of 17:53, 6 July 2026
- NOTOC**
History of Gerrymandering in America
Origins of Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries to favor one political party, group, or interest. The term comes from an 1812 Massachusetts redistricting plan signed by Governor Elbridge Gerry. Critics said one oddly shaped district resembled a salamander, leading to the famous political cartoon and the word “gerrymander.”
Although the name dates to 1812, political manipulation of district lines has deeper roots in American politics. Early politicians quickly learned that control over district boundaries could shape representation, protect incumbents, weaken opponents, and influence legislative power.
Redistricting and Representation
Redistricting is the regular process of redrawing electoral districts, usually after each census, to reflect population changes. In principle, redistricting is meant to preserve equal representation. In practice, it has often been used as a partisan weapon.
Two common techniques are “packing” and “cracking.” Packing concentrates opposing voters into a small number of districts so their votes are wasted in landslide victories. Cracking spreads opposing voters across several districts so they cannot form a majority anywhere. Together, these tactics can allow one party to win more seats than its share of the vote would normally justify.
The One Person, One Vote Revolution
For much of American history, courts were reluctant to intervene in districting disputes. In Colegrove v. Green in 1946, the Supreme Court declined to police malapportioned congressional districts, treating the issue as largely political.
That changed in the 1960s. Baker v. Carr opened the door for federal courts to hear reapportionment cases. Wesberry v. Sanders required congressional districts within a state to have roughly equal populations. Reynolds v. Sims extended the “one person, one vote” principle to state legislative districts. These decisions transformed redistricting law and forced states to redraw outdated maps.
Partisan Gerrymandering and the Courts
The Supreme Court struggled for decades with partisan gerrymandering. In Davis v. Bandemer in 1986, the Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims could be heard in federal court, but the justices failed to agree on a clear standard for judging them. In Vieth v. Jubelirer in 2004, the Court again wrestled with whether courts could identify unconstitutional partisan maps.
The major turning point came in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019. The Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering claims presented political questions beyond the reach of federal courts. This decision did not approve partisan gerrymandering, but it shifted many reform battles to state courts, state constitutions, ballot initiatives, independent commissions, and Congress.
Racial Gerrymandering and Voting Rights
Gerrymandering is also closely tied to race. Racial gerrymandering occurs when districts are drawn primarily around race in ways that violate constitutional protections. Shaw v. Reno in 1993 created modern racial-gerrymandering doctrine by allowing challenges to districts where race was the dominant factor in map design.
At the same time, the Voting Rights Act has required states in some circumstances to draw districts that give minority voters a fair opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. This has created a complicated legal boundary between lawful minority-opportunity districts and unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.
Modern cases often involve both race and party because voting patterns in the United States are frequently racially polarized. Courts have had to decide whether lawmakers used race directly or claimed they were using party affiliation as a proxy.
Modern Data-Driven Gerrymandering
Modern gerrymandering became more powerful with computer mapping, voter databases, geographic information systems, and increasingly precise political data. After the 2010 census, sophisticated redistricting strategies allowed mapmakers to target neighborhoods, voter blocs, and communities with much greater precision than in earlier eras.
Projects such as REDMAP showed how control of state legislatures could shape congressional maps for a decade. Since congressional and state legislative maps are often drawn by politicians who benefit from them, redistricting can become a self-protecting system where elected officials choose their voters rather than voters choosing their representatives.
Mathematical Measurement and Redistricting Tools
Researchers, journalists, and reform groups have developed new ways to measure gerrymandering. These include partisan bias, efficiency gap, compactness scores, ensemble analysis, simulated maps, and outlier detection. Tools such as PlanScore, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, and redistricting atlases help compare enacted maps with alternative possibilities.
However, no single metric can fully capture gerrymandering. A district may look compact but still produce a strong partisan advantage. A map may perform differently depending on voter geography, turnout, and election year. For this reason, modern analysis often uses multiple measures together.
Mid-Decade Redistricting and Recent Battles
Traditionally, redistricting happens after the census every ten years. In recent years, however, mid-decade redistricting has become a more visible political fight. Some states have considered or adopted new maps between census cycles, raising concerns that partisan mapmaking could become a continuing arms race rather than a once-a-decade process.
After Rucho, state courts became especially important. Some state constitutions provide stronger protections against partisan gerrymandering than the federal Constitution. As a result, lawsuits in state courts, independent commissions, and ballot reforms have become central parts of the modern redistricting landscape.
Reform Efforts
Reformers have proposed several ways to reduce gerrymandering. These include independent redistricting commissions, stronger state constitutional standards, transparent map-drawing rules, public participation, ranked criteria for communities of interest, and limits on partisan data use.
Some reforms have shown promise by reducing direct control by partisan lawmakers. Yet reform remains uneven across the country because redistricting rules vary by state. In some places, legislatures still control the process; in others, commissions or courts play a larger role.
Conclusion
The history of gerrymandering in America shows a long struggle over political power, representation, race, and democracy. From the 1812 “Gerry-mander” to modern computer-generated maps, district boundaries have repeatedly shaped who wins elections and whose voices are heard.
Court decisions in the 1960s established equal-population principles, but later rulings left partisan gerrymandering largely outside federal judicial review. Today, the fight over fair maps continues through state courts, commissions, public advocacy, data tools, and reform campaigns. Gerrymandering remains one of the most important issues in American democracy because it affects not only election outcomes but also the basic fairness of representation.
- TOC**
John Oliver on Redistricting: ‘Putting a Thumb on the Scale of Who Gets Elected’
| Adrian Horton | The Guardian | June 29, 2026 This article summarizes a 2026 segment on modern redistricting battles, connecting current partisan map fights to the long history of gerrymandering and minority-vote dilution.
Explainer: What’s Happening with Gerrymandering in the United States?
| Harvard Kennedy School | Harvard Kennedy School | May 4, 2026 This explainer places recent mid-decade redistricting fights in historical context, explaining how states moved from census-based mapmaking to increasingly aggressive partisan redraws.
A Tale of Two Courts: Rucho v. Baker
| Jesse Wegman | Brennan Center for Justice | April 27, 2026 This essay compares the Supreme Court’s handling of partisan gerrymandering to earlier reapportionment cases, arguing that modern courts helped enable extreme map manipulation.
How the US Supreme Court Set the Stage for Partisan Gerrymandering Arms Race
| Andrew Chung and John Kruzel | Reuters | February 14, 2026 This report explains how the 2019 Rucho decision reshaped the legal landscape for partisan gerrymandering and contributed to later redistricting battles in multiple states.
The Next Round of Partisan Gerrymandering Fights
| Alicia Bannon | State Court Report | September 25, 2025 This article explains how state courts became central battlegrounds after federal courts withdrew from policing partisan gerrymandering.
The History and Future of Partisan Gerrymandering in America
| National Constitution Center | We the People | August 28, 2025 This podcast discusses the long history of partisan gerrymandering, including nineteenth-century mid-decade redistricting and modern fights in Texas and California.
Redistricting Between Censuses Has Been Rare in the Modern Era
| Drew DeSilver | Pew Research Center | August 28, 2025 This article provides historical context for mid-cycle redistricting, showing that voluntary partisan redraws between censuses have been uncommon in recent decades.
What to Know About Redistricting and Gerrymandering
| Bipartisan Policy Center | Bipartisan Policy Center | August 8, 2025 This explainer defines redistricting, partisan gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering, and reform options while situating the practice in American political history.
How Did We Get All This Gerrymandering? A Short History of the Republican Redistricting Scheme
| Sam Levine | The Guardian | August 9, 2025 This article traces modern Republican redistricting strategy from the REDMAP project after 2008 through the post-Rucho era of aggressive partisan mapmaking.
Gerrymandering Gives One Party a Head Start in House Race
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | October 2, 2024 This article explains how gerrymandering influenced the 2024 House landscape and connects modern partisan maps to early American examples.
Don’t Trust a Single Gerrymandering Metric
| Thomas Ratliff, Stephanie Somersille and Ellen Veomett | arXiv | September 25, 2024 This research paper explains why common mathematical measures of gerrymandering can be manipulated and why historical map analysis should use multiple metrics.
How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | September 24, 2024 This report estimates how congressional gerrymanders shaped the 2024 House election and explains the historical development of partisan map advantages.
Gerrymandering: The Origin Story
| Neely Tucker | Library of Congress | July 18, 2024 This article tells the story of the 1812 Massachusetts map, the Boston Gazette cartoon, and the origin of the word “gerrymander.”
Redistricting Reforms Reduce Gerrymandering by Constraining Partisan Actors
| Cory McCartan, Christopher T. Kenny, Tyler Simko, Emma Ebowe, Michael Y. Zhao and Kosuke Imai | arXiv | July 16, 2024 This study examines how redistricting reforms and commissions affect partisan bias, using modern statistical methods to compare institutional rules across states.
The Supreme Court Just Made Gerrymandering Even Easier
| Elie Mystal | Brennan Center for Justice | May 29, 2024 This analysis discusses a Supreme Court racial-gerrymandering decision and explains how the distinction between race and party has shaped modern redistricting law.
Supreme Court Rejects Claim That South Carolina’s Congressional Map Was Racially Gerrymandered
| Josh Gerstein | Politico | May 23, 2024 This article explains the Supreme Court’s South Carolina redistricting ruling and its implications for the boundary between racial and partisan gerrymandering.
A Brief History of Modern Congressional Redistricting
| The American Redistricting Project | The American Redistricting Project | January 2, 2023 This overview explains how congressional redistricting developed in the modern era, including state legislative control, commissions, and post-census map cycles.
Implications of Distance Over Redistricting Maps: Central and Outlier Maps
| Seyed A. Esmaeili, Darshan Chakrabarti, Hayley Grape and Brian Brubach | arXiv | March 2, 2022 This paper describes computational methods for identifying unusual or outlier district maps, adding to the modern history of mathematical gerrymandering analysis.
Brennan Center Finds Widespread Gerrymandering in Latest Round of Redistricting
| Jacob Fischler | Ohio Capital Journal | January 20, 2022 This article summarizes findings from the Brennan Center on the post-2020 redistricting cycle and highlights Ohio as a major example of map litigation.
Plenty of Gerrymandering in Early Maps
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | December 1, 2021 This article reviews early post-2020 redistricting maps and explains how sophisticated technology intensified long-standing partisan practices.
Gerrymandering Explained
| Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 10, 2021 This explainer defines gerrymandering, describes packing and cracking, and explains how partisan and racial gerrymanders affect representation.
How Gerrymandering Began in the US
| Dave Roos | HISTORY | April 20, 2021 This article explains the origin of the word “gerrymander,” the 1812 Massachusetts map, and how the practice became embedded in American politics.
Atlas of Redistricting Maps
| Alec Ramsay | DistrictBuilder / Medium | August 18, 2020 This article discusses the FiveThirtyEight redistricting atlas and the use of alternative maps to show how district boundaries can change political outcomes.
Rucho v. Common Cause
| Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 1, 2019 This case page explains the Supreme Court case that ended federal court review of partisan gerrymandering claims and shifted reform battles to states and Congress.
The Surprise Return and Transformation of Racial Gerrymandering
| Michael C. Li | New York University Law Review | 2019 This law review article traces the Supreme Court’s racial-gerrymandering doctrine from Shaw v. Reno through modern redistricting litigation.
1960s Supreme Court Forced States to Make Their Voting Districts Fairer
| Becky Little | HISTORY | June 17, 2019 This article explains the “one person, one vote” revolution and how Supreme Court decisions forced states to redraw malapportioned districts.
On Partisan Bias in Redistricting: Computational Complexity Meets the Science of Gerrymandering
| Tanima Chatterjee and Bhaskar DasGupta | arXiv | October 3, 2019 This paper explains how computer science and mathematical modeling became part of the modern study of gerrymandering.
Quantifying Gerrymandering in North Carolina
| Gregory Herschlag, Han Sung Kang, Justin Luo, Christy Vaughn Graves, Sachet Bangia, Robert Ravier and Jonathan C. Mattingly | arXiv | January 10, 2018 This research paper uses simulated district plans to show how North Carolina congressional maps stood out as extreme partisan outliers.
The Atlas of Redistricting
| Aaron Bycoffe, Ella Koeze, David Wasserman and Julia Wolfe | FiveThirtyEight | January 25, 2018 This interactive project shows how different redistricting goals can produce dramatically different congressional maps and partisan outcomes.
Partisan Gerrymandering with Geographically Compact Districts
| Boris Alexeev and Dustin G. Mixon | arXiv | December 14, 2017 This paper demonstrates that compact-looking districts can still produce strong partisan bias, challenging the idea that shape alone can detect gerrymandering.
Impartial Redistricting: A Markov Chain Approach to the Gerrymandering Problem
| Jason Dou | arXiv | November 13, 2017 This paper explores whether randomized computer-generated maps can provide a more impartial baseline for evaluating district plans.
Partisan Gerrymandering Is Still About Race
| Olga Pierce and Kate Rabinowitz | ProPublica | October 9, 2017 This article explains how partisan gerrymandering cases often overlap with racial voting patterns and minority representation.
Gerrymandering and the Net Number of US House Seats Won Due to Vote-Distribution Asymmetries
| Jeffrey S. Buzas and Gregory S. Warrington | arXiv | July 27, 2017 This study estimates the number of U.S. House seats affected by partisan vote-distribution asymmetries over time.
Elbridge Gerry and the Monstrous Gerrymander
| Jennifer Davis | Library of Congress | February 10, 2017 This article describes the first famous “gerrymander,” signed by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812.
Drawing the Line
| Elizabeth Kolbert | The New Yorker | June 20, 2016 This article reviews the modern history of strategic redistricting, including the REDMAP project and the use of data-driven mapmaking after 2010.
Redistricting, a Devil’s Dictionary
| Lois Beckett | ProPublica | November 2, 2011 This guide explains key redistricting terms such as cracking, packing, communities of interest, and racial vote dilution.
Terminology in Office
| Erin Allen | Library of Congress | October 25, 2012 This Library of Congress post features the 1812 “Gerry-mander” cartoon and places the word in the history of American political language.
Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267
| Supreme Court of the United States | Library of Congress | April 28, 2004 This Supreme Court opinion addressed partisan gerrymandering claims from Pennsylvania and deepened the Court’s struggle to define manageable legal standards.
Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 28, 1993 This landmark decision created modern racial-gerrymandering doctrine by allowing challenges to districts where race predominated in map drawing.
Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 30, 1986 This Supreme Court case held that partisan gerrymandering claims could be heard in federal court, though the justices failed to agree on a workable standard.
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 15, 1964 This decision established the “one person, one vote” rule for state legislative districts, reshaping redistricting and limiting malapportionment.
Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | February 17, 1964 This case required congressional districts within a state to have roughly equal populations, transforming the legal history of redistricting.
Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | March 26, 1962 This case opened the door for federal courts to hear redistricting and reapportionment cases, beginning the modern judicial era of district-map review.
Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 10, 1946 This earlier Supreme Court decision declined to intervene in malapportioned congressional districts, showing the Court’s pre-1960s reluctance to police district maps.
Where We Have Been: The History of Gerrymandering in America
| New America | New America | Undated This historical overview traces gerrymandering from early American politics through single-member districts, racial redistricting, and modern partisan mapmaking.
PlanScore
| Campaign Legal Center | PlanScore | Undated This tool provides historical and modern data for evaluating district maps, helping show how mathematical measurement became part of gerrymandering reform.
Gerrymandering Project
| Princeton Gerrymandering Project | Princeton University | Undated This project provides redistricting resources, report cards, and legal support materials for understanding modern gerrymandering and reform efforts.
copiable
John Oliver on Redistricting: ‘Putting a Thumb on the Scale of Who Gets Elected’
| Adrian Horton | The Guardian | June 29, 2026 This article summarizes a 2026 segment on modern redistricting battles, connecting current partisan map fights to the long history of gerrymandering and minority-vote dilution.
Explainer: What’s Happening with Gerrymandering in the United States?
| Harvard Kennedy School | Harvard Kennedy School | May 4, 2026 This explainer places recent mid-decade redistricting fights in historical context, explaining how states moved from census-based mapmaking to increasingly aggressive partisan redraws.
A Tale of Two Courts: Rucho v. Baker
| Jesse Wegman | Brennan Center for Justice | April 27, 2026 This essay compares the Supreme Court’s handling of partisan gerrymandering to earlier reapportionment cases, arguing that modern courts helped enable extreme map manipulation.
How the US Supreme Court Set the Stage for Partisan Gerrymandering Arms Race
| Andrew Chung and John Kruzel | Reuters | February 14, 2026 This report explains how the 2019 Rucho decision reshaped the legal landscape for partisan gerrymandering and contributed to later redistricting battles in multiple states.
The Next Round of Partisan Gerrymandering Fights
| Alicia Bannon | State Court Report | September 25, 2025 This article explains how state courts became central battlegrounds after federal courts withdrew from policing partisan gerrymandering.
The History and Future of Partisan Gerrymandering in America
| National Constitution Center | We the People | August 28, 2025 This podcast discusses the long history of partisan gerrymandering, including nineteenth-century mid-decade redistricting and modern fights in Texas and California.
Redistricting Between Censuses Has Been Rare in the Modern Era
| Drew DeSilver | Pew Research Center | August 28, 2025 This article provides historical context for mid-cycle redistricting, showing that voluntary partisan redraws between censuses have been uncommon in recent decades.
How Did We Get All This Gerrymandering? A Short History of the Republican Redistricting Scheme
| Sam Levine | The Guardian | August 9, 2025 This article traces modern Republican redistricting strategy from the REDMAP project after 2008 through the post-Rucho era of aggressive partisan mapmaking.
What to Know About Redistricting and Gerrymandering
| Bipartisan Policy Center | Bipartisan Policy Center | August 8, 2025 This explainer defines redistricting, partisan gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering, and reform options while situating the practice in American political history.
Gerrymandering Gives One Party a Head Start in House Race
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | October 2, 2024 This article explains how gerrymandering influenced the 2024 House landscape and connects modern partisan maps to early American examples.
Don’t Trust a Single Gerrymandering Metric
| Thomas Ratliff, Stephanie Somersille and Ellen Veomett | arXiv | September 25, 2024 This research paper explains why common mathematical measures of gerrymandering can be manipulated and why historical map analysis should use multiple metrics.
How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | September 24, 2024 This report estimates how congressional gerrymanders shaped the 2024 House election and explains the historical development of partisan map advantages.
Gerrymandering: The Origin Story
| Neely Tucker | Library of Congress | July 18, 2024 This article tells the story of the 1812 Massachusetts map, the Boston Gazette cartoon, and the origin of the word “gerrymander.”
Redistricting Reforms Reduce Gerrymandering by Constraining Partisan Actors
| Cory McCartan, Christopher T. Kenny, Tyler Simko, Emma Ebowe, Michael Y. Zhao and Kosuke Imai | arXiv | July 16, 2024 This study examines how redistricting reforms and commissions affect partisan bias, using modern statistical methods to compare institutional rules across states.
The Supreme Court Just Made Gerrymandering Even Easier
| Elie Mystal | Brennan Center for Justice | May 29, 2024 This analysis discusses a Supreme Court racial-gerrymandering decision and explains how the distinction between race and party has shaped modern redistricting law.
Supreme Court Rejects Claim That South Carolina’s Congressional Map Was Racially Gerrymandered
| Josh Gerstein | Politico | May 23, 2024 This article explains the Supreme Court’s South Carolina redistricting ruling and its implications for the boundary between racial and partisan gerrymandering.
A Brief History of Modern Congressional Redistricting
| The American Redistricting Project | The American Redistricting Project | January 2, 2023 This overview explains how congressional redistricting developed in the modern era, including state legislative control, commissions, and post-census map cycles.
Implications of Distance Over Redistricting Maps: Central and Outlier Maps
| Seyed A. Esmaeili, Darshan Chakrabarti, Hayley Grape and Brian Brubach | arXiv | March 2, 2022 This paper describes computational methods for identifying unusual or outlier district maps, adding to the modern history of mathematical gerrymandering analysis.
Brennan Center Finds Widespread Gerrymandering in Latest Round of Redistricting
| Jacob Fischler | Ohio Capital Journal | January 20, 2022 This article summarizes findings from the Brennan Center on the post-2020 redistricting cycle and highlights Ohio as a major example of map litigation.
Plenty of Gerrymandering in Early Maps
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | December 1, 2021 This article reviews early post-2020 redistricting maps and explains how sophisticated technology intensified long-standing partisan practices.
Gerrymandering Explained
| Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 10, 2021 This explainer defines gerrymandering, describes packing and cracking, and explains how partisan and racial gerrymanders affect representation.
How Gerrymandering Began in the US
| Dave Roos | HISTORY | April 20, 2021 This article explains the origin of the word “gerrymander,” the 1812 Massachusetts map, and how the practice became embedded in American politics.
Atlas of Redistricting Maps
| Alec Ramsay | DistrictBuilder / Medium | August 18, 2020 This article discusses the FiveThirtyEight redistricting atlas and the use of alternative maps to show how district boundaries can change political outcomes.
Rucho v. Common Cause
| Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 1, 2019 This case page explains the Supreme Court case that ended federal court review of partisan gerrymandering claims and shifted reform battles to states and Congress.
On Partisan Bias in Redistricting: Computational Complexity Meets the Science of Gerrymandering
| Tanima Chatterjee and Bhaskar DasGupta | arXiv | October 3, 2019 This paper explains how computer science and mathematical modeling became part of the modern study of gerrymandering.
The Surprise Return and Transformation of Racial Gerrymandering
| Michael C. Li | New York University Law Review | 2019 This law review article traces the Supreme Court’s racial-gerrymandering doctrine from Shaw v. Reno through modern redistricting litigation.
1960s Supreme Court Forced States to Make Their Voting Districts Fairer
| Becky Little | HISTORY | June 17, 2019 This article explains the “one person, one vote” revolution and how Supreme Court decisions forced states to redraw malapportioned districts.
Quantifying Gerrymandering in North Carolina
| Gregory Herschlag, Han Sung Kang, Justin Luo, Christy Vaughn Graves, Sachet Bangia, Robert Ravier and Jonathan C. Mattingly | arXiv | January 10, 2018 This research paper uses simulated district plans to show how North Carolina congressional maps stood out as extreme partisan outliers.
The Atlas of Redistricting
| Aaron Bycoffe, Ella Koeze, David Wasserman and Julia Wolfe | FiveThirtyEight | January 25, 2018 This interactive project shows how different redistricting goals can produce dramatically different congressional maps and partisan outcomes.
Partisan Gerrymandering with Geographically Compact Districts
| Boris Alexeev and Dustin G. Mixon | arXiv | December 14, 2017 This paper demonstrates that compact-looking districts can still produce strong partisan bias, challenging the idea that shape alone can detect gerrymandering.
Impartial Redistricting: A Markov Chain Approach to the Gerrymandering Problem
| Jason Dou | arXiv | November 13, 2017 This paper explores whether randomized computer-generated maps can provide a more impartial baseline for evaluating district plans.
Partisan Gerrymandering Is Still About Race
| Olga Pierce and Kate Rabinowitz | ProPublica | October 9, 2017 This article explains how partisan gerrymandering cases often overlap with racial voting patterns and minority representation.
Gerrymandering and the Net Number of US House Seats Won Due to Vote-Distribution Asymmetries
| Jeffrey S. Buzas and Gregory S. Warrington | arXiv | July 27, 2017 This study estimates the number of U.S. House seats affected by partisan vote-distribution asymmetries over time.
Elbridge Gerry and the Monstrous Gerrymander
| Jennifer Davis | Library of Congress | February 10, 2017 This article describes the first famous “gerrymander,” signed by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812.
Drawing the Line
| Elizabeth Kolbert | The New Yorker | June 20, 2016 This article reviews the modern history of strategic redistricting, including the REDMAP project and the use of data-driven mapmaking after 2010.
Terminology in Office
| Erin Allen | Library of Congress | October 25, 2012 This Library of Congress post features the 1812 “Gerry-mander” cartoon and places the word in the history of American political language.
Redistricting, a Devil’s Dictionary
| Lois Beckett | ProPublica | November 2, 2011 This guide explains key redistricting terms such as cracking, packing, communities of interest, and racial vote dilution.
Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267
| Supreme Court of the United States | Library of Congress | April 28, 2004 This Supreme Court opinion addressed partisan gerrymandering claims from Pennsylvania and deepened the Court’s struggle to define manageable legal standards.
Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 28, 1993 This landmark decision created modern racial-gerrymandering doctrine by allowing challenges to districts where race predominated in map drawing.
Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 30, 1986 This Supreme Court case held that partisan gerrymandering claims could be heard in federal court, though the justices failed to agree on a workable standard.
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 15, 1964 This decision established the “one person, one vote” rule for state legislative districts, reshaping redistricting and limiting malapportionment.
Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | February 17, 1964 This case required congressional districts within a state to have roughly equal populations, transforming the legal history of redistricting.
Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | March 26, 1962 This case opened the door for federal courts to hear redistricting and reapportionment cases, beginning the modern judicial era of district-map review.
Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 10, 1946 This earlier Supreme Court decision declined to intervene in malapportioned congressional districts, showing the Court’s pre-1960s reluctance to police district maps.
Where We Have Been: The History of Gerrymandering in America
| New America | New America | Undated This historical overview traces gerrymandering from early American politics through single-member districts, racial redistricting, and modern partisan mapmaking.
PlanScore
| Campaign Legal Center | PlanScore | Undated This tool provides historical and modern data for evaluating district maps, helping show how mathematical measurement became part of gerrymandering reform.
Gerrymandering Project
| Princeton Gerrymandering Project | Princeton University | Undated This project provides redistricting resources, report cards, and legal support materials for understanding modern gerrymandering and reform efforts.
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Thought for 32s
Current Redistricting and Political Analysis
John Oliver on Redistricting: ‘Putting a Thumb on the Scale of Who Gets Elected’
| Adrian Horton | The Guardian | June 29, 2026 This article summarizes a 2026 segment on modern redistricting battles, connecting current partisan map fights to the long history of gerrymandering and minority-vote dilution.
How the US Supreme Court Set the Stage for Partisan Gerrymandering Arms Race
| Andrew Chung and John Kruzel | Reuters | February 14, 2026 This report explains how the 2019 Rucho decision reshaped the legal landscape for partisan gerrymandering and contributed to later redistricting battles in multiple states.
The Next Round of Partisan Gerrymandering Fights
| Alicia Bannon | State Court Report | September 25, 2025 This article explains how state courts became central battlegrounds after federal courts withdrew from policing partisan gerrymandering.
How Did We Get All This Gerrymandering? A Short History of the Republican Redistricting Scheme
| Sam Levine | The Guardian | August 9, 2025 This article traces modern Republican redistricting strategy from the REDMAP project after 2008 through the post-Rucho era of aggressive partisan mapmaking.
Gerrymandering Gives One Party a Head Start in House Race
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | October 2, 2024 This article explains how gerrymandering influenced the 2024 House landscape and connects modern partisan maps to early American examples.
How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | September 24, 2024 This report estimates how congressional gerrymanders shaped the 2024 House election and explains the historical development of partisan map advantages.
Plenty of Gerrymandering in Early Maps
| Michael Li | Brennan Center for Justice | December 1, 2021 This article reviews early post-2020 redistricting maps and explains how sophisticated technology intensified long-standing partisan practices.
Partisan Gerrymandering Is Still About Race
| Olga Pierce and Kate Rabinowitz | ProPublica | October 9, 2017 This article explains how partisan gerrymandering cases often overlap with racial voting patterns and minority representation.
Drawing the Line
| Elizabeth Kolbert | The New Yorker | June 20, 2016 This article reviews the modern history of strategic redistricting, including the REDMAP project and the use of data-driven mapmaking after 2010.
Explainers and Historical Background
Explainer: What’s Happening with Gerrymandering in the United States?
| Harvard Kennedy School | Harvard Kennedy School | May 4, 2026 This explainer places recent mid-decade redistricting fights in historical context, explaining how states moved from census-based mapmaking to increasingly aggressive partisan redraws.
The History and Future of Partisan Gerrymandering in America
| National Constitution Center | We the People | August 28, 2025 This podcast discusses the long history of partisan gerrymandering, including nineteenth-century mid-decade redistricting and modern fights in Texas and California.
Redistricting Between Censuses Has Been Rare in the Modern Era
| Drew DeSilver | Pew Research Center | August 28, 2025 This article provides historical context for mid-cycle redistricting, showing that voluntary partisan redraws between censuses have been uncommon in recent decades.
What to Know About Redistricting and Gerrymandering
| Bipartisan Policy Center | Bipartisan Policy Center | August 8, 2025 This explainer defines redistricting, partisan gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering, and reform options while situating the practice in American political history.
Gerrymandering: The Origin Story
| Neely Tucker | Library of Congress | July 18, 2024 This article tells the story of the 1812 Massachusetts map, the Boston Gazette cartoon, and the origin of the word “gerrymander.”
A Brief History of Modern Congressional Redistricting
| The American Redistricting Project | The American Redistricting Project | January 2, 2023 This overview explains how congressional redistricting developed in the modern era, including state legislative control, commissions, and post-census map cycles.
Gerrymandering Explained
| Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 10, 2021 This explainer defines gerrymandering, describes packing and cracking, and explains how partisan and racial gerrymanders affect representation.
How Gerrymandering Began in the US
| Dave Roos | HISTORY | April 20, 2021 This article explains the origin of the word “gerrymander,” the 1812 Massachusetts map, and how the practice became embedded in American politics.
1960s Supreme Court Forced States to Make Their Voting Districts Fairer
| Becky Little | HISTORY | June 17, 2019 This article explains the “one person, one vote” revolution and how Supreme Court decisions forced states to redraw malapportioned districts.
Elbridge Gerry and the Monstrous Gerrymander
| Jennifer Davis | Library of Congress | February 10, 2017 This article describes the first famous “gerrymander,” signed by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812.
Terminology in Office
| Erin Allen | Library of Congress | October 25, 2012 This Library of Congress post features the 1812 “Gerry-mander” cartoon and places the word in the history of American political language.
Redistricting, a Devil’s Dictionary
| Lois Beckett | ProPublica | November 2, 2011 This guide explains key redistricting terms such as cracking, packing, communities of interest, and racial vote dilution.
Where We Have Been: The History of Gerrymandering in America
| New America | New America | Undated This historical overview traces gerrymandering from early American politics through single-member districts, racial redistricting, and modern partisan mapmaking.
Court Cases and Legal Doctrine
A Tale of Two Courts: Rucho v. Baker
| Jesse Wegman | Brennan Center for Justice | April 27, 2026 This essay compares the Supreme Court’s handling of partisan gerrymandering to earlier reapportionment cases, arguing that modern courts helped enable extreme map manipulation.
The Supreme Court Just Made Gerrymandering Even Easier
| Elie Mystal | Brennan Center for Justice | May 29, 2024 This analysis discusses a Supreme Court racial-gerrymandering decision and explains how the distinction between race and party has shaped modern redistricting law.
Supreme Court Rejects Claim That South Carolina’s Congressional Map Was Racially Gerrymandered
| Josh Gerstein | Politico | May 23, 2024 This article explains the Supreme Court’s South Carolina redistricting ruling and its implications for the boundary between racial and partisan gerrymandering.
Rucho v. Common Cause
| Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 1, 2019 This case page explains the Supreme Court case that ended federal court review of partisan gerrymandering claims and shifted reform battles to states and Congress.
The Surprise Return and Transformation of Racial Gerrymandering
| Michael C. Li | New York University Law Review | 2019 This law review article traces the Supreme Court’s racial-gerrymandering doctrine from Shaw v. Reno through modern redistricting litigation.
Vieth v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267
| Supreme Court of the United States | Library of Congress | April 28, 2004 This Supreme Court opinion addressed partisan gerrymandering claims from Pennsylvania and deepened the Court’s struggle to define manageable legal standards.
Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 28, 1993 This landmark decision created modern racial-gerrymandering doctrine by allowing challenges to districts where race predominated in map drawing.
Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 30, 1986 This Supreme Court case held that partisan gerrymandering claims could be heard in federal court, though the justices failed to agree on a workable standard.
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 15, 1964 This decision established the “one person, one vote” rule for state legislative districts, reshaping redistricting and limiting malapportionment.
Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | February 17, 1964 This case required congressional districts within a state to have roughly equal populations, transforming the legal history of redistricting.
Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | March 26, 1962 This case opened the door for federal courts to hear redistricting and reapportionment cases, beginning the modern judicial era of district-map review.
Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549
| Supreme Court of the United States | Justia | June 10, 1946 This earlier Supreme Court decision declined to intervene in malapportioned congressional districts, showing the Court’s pre-1960s reluctance to police district maps.
Academic Research and Measurement
Don’t Trust a Single Gerrymandering Metric
| Thomas Ratliff, Stephanie Somersille and Ellen Veomett | arXiv | September 25, 2024 This research paper explains why common mathematical measures of gerrymandering can be manipulated and why historical map analysis should use multiple metrics.
Redistricting Reforms Reduce Gerrymandering by Constraining Partisan Actors
| Cory McCartan, Christopher T. Kenny, Tyler Simko, Emma Ebowe, Michael Y. Zhao and Kosuke Imai | arXiv | July 16, 2024 This study examines how redistricting reforms and commissions affect partisan bias, using modern statistical methods to compare institutional rules across states.
Implications of Distance Over Redistricting Maps: Central and Outlier Maps
| Seyed A. Esmaeili, Darshan Chakrabarti, Hayley Grape and Brian Brubach | arXiv | March 2, 2022 This paper describes computational methods for identifying unusual or outlier district maps, adding to the modern history of mathematical gerrymandering analysis.
On Partisan Bias in Redistricting: Computational Complexity Meets the Science of Gerrymandering
| Tanima Chatterjee and Bhaskar DasGupta | arXiv | October 3, 2019 This paper explains how computer science and mathematical modeling became part of the modern study of gerrymandering.
Quantifying Gerrymandering in North Carolina
| Gregory Herschlag, Han Sung Kang, Justin Luo, Christy Vaughn Graves, Sachet Bangia, Robert Ravier and Jonathan C. Mattingly | arXiv | January 10, 2018 This research paper uses simulated district plans to show how North Carolina congressional maps stood out as extreme partisan outliers.
Partisan Gerrymandering with Geographically Compact Districts
| Boris Alexeev and Dustin G. Mixon | arXiv | December 14, 2017 This paper demonstrates that compact-looking districts can still produce strong partisan bias, challenging the idea that shape alone can detect gerrymandering.
Impartial Redistricting: A Markov Chain Approach to the Gerrymandering Problem
| Jason Dou | arXiv | November 13, 2017 This paper explores whether randomized computer-generated maps can provide a more impartial baseline for evaluating district plans.
Gerrymandering and the Net Number of US House Seats Won Due to Vote-Distribution Asymmetries
| Jeffrey S. Buzas and Gregory S. Warrington | arXiv | July 27, 2017 This study estimates the number of U.S. House seats affected by partisan vote-distribution asymmetries over time.
Maps, Data Tools, and Reform Projects
Brennan Center Finds Widespread Gerrymandering in Latest Round of Redistricting
| Jacob Fischler | Ohio Capital Journal | January 20, 2022 This article summarizes findings from the Brennan Center on the post-2020 redistricting cycle and highlights Ohio as a major example of map litigation.
Atlas of Redistricting Maps
| Alec Ramsay | DistrictBuilder / Medium | August 18, 2020 This article discusses the FiveThirtyEight redistricting atlas and the use of alternative maps to show how district boundaries can change political outcomes.
The Atlas of Redistricting
| Aaron Bycoffe, Ella Koeze, David Wasserman and Julia Wolfe | FiveThirtyEight | January 25, 2018 This interactive project shows how different redistricting goals can produce dramatically different congressional maps and partisan outcomes.
PlanScore
| Campaign Legal Center | PlanScore | Undated This tool provides historical and modern data for evaluating district maps, helping show how mathematical measurement became part of gerrymandering reform.
Gerrymandering Project
| Princeton Gerrymandering Project | Princeton University | Undated This project provides redistricting resources, report cards, and legal support materials for understanding modern gerrymandering and reform efforts.
