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THE GOP HOUSE GERRYMANDER, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT  
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Michael Waldman
October 2, 2024
Brennan Center for Justice
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_ Rampant rigging has blocked fair representation, especially in the
South. Nearly all population growth over the past decade took place in
the South and Southwest, and most of that came from communities of
color, who are being shut out of power. _

At trial, the ACLU demonstrated that the 6th CD is a two-headed
dragon that spans multiple cities and groups Black voters together to
minimize their ability to affect elections, South Carolina ACLU

 

Gerrymandering is as old as the republic. In the very first
congressional election, Patrick Henry drew a map to try to keep James
Madison from being elected to Congress. (That was before the word
“gerrymandering” was even coined.) Today, both parties do it with
gusto when they can.

And now gerrymandering may decide control of the House of
Representatives.

Once, gerrymandering was an art. Phillip Burton, the legendary
Democratic House member from San Francisco who served from the 1960s
to the 1980s, used to draw the state’s maps on a tablecloth at a
Sacramento restaurant. He proudly called one misshapen district “my
contribution to modern art.” Now, however, it’s a science. Digital
technology has reshaped the drawing of maps. Partisans can craft
districts to quash competition in a way that lasts throughout a
decade.

Once, there was hope the courts would step in. In 2019, however, the
Supreme Court ruled that federal judges were barred from policing
partisan gerrymandering. And while it is still illegal to draw
district lines to discriminate based on race, judges have often winked
and allowed politicians to racially gerrymander so long as they shrug
and say, “It’s not about race, it’s just politics.”

Rampant district rigging has blocked fair representation in many
states, especially in the South. Nearly all the population growth in
the United States over the past decade took place in the South and
Southwest, and most of that came from communities of color — the
very voters who should be represented and who are being shut out of
power.

Now, we know that there are direct partisan consequences too. All the
map drawing, all the lawsuits, are done for 2024. The dust has
settled. And the Brennan Center’s experts have analyzed the effects
of gerrymandering. Attorney Michael Li and political scientist Peter
Miller have checked and rechecked the data.

Here’s what they found: gerrymandering in 2024 will give Republicans
approximately 16 additional seats in the House of Representatives
compared to fairly drawn maps. That is well more than the margin of
control in this Congress or in the one before it. There can be no
question that this was done deliberately and with scientific precision
— and comes especially at the expense of communities of color. In
most of the gerrymandered states, there were hundreds or thousands of
fair maps that could have been drawn.

What can be done about it?

One answer comes from Ohio. Seven times, the state supreme court there
struck down unfair maps drawn by the Republicans. (The Brennan Center
represented a broad coalition of Ohio voters.) Each time, partisan map
drawers simply ignored the court. Then the state’s esteemed Chief
Justice Maureen O’Connor, a prominent Republican, retired due to
term limits. Now she leads a statewide drive for a ballot measure to
create a strong, independent, citizen-led redistricting commission.
This conservative stalwart teamed up with the progressive grassroots
Ohio Organizing Collaborative. It’s a buddy movie for the ages.

Republicans tried to change the number of votes needed to pass a
measure like this, but citizens rejected that sneaky move. Then state
officials rewrote the language to say that the initiative was designed
to _support _gerrymandering. No matter. Polls look strong, and there
is a good chance that in Ohio, voters will untilt the legislature and
congressional maps. Ohio would join Arizona, California, Colorado, and
Michigan with their independent commissions. It is a prime exhibit of
why voters should be able to overrule politicians.

There’s a national solution too. The Freedom to Vote Act would ban
partisan gerrymandering in congressional redistricting. The John R.
Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would strengthen that vital law
against racially discriminatory rules. Both bills came achingly close
to passing in the last Congress.

Sen. Charles Schumer, at a Brennan Center event with Democracy SENTRY
in Chicago this summer, announced that Democrats would make these
voting rights bills the first order of business — and that they
would change the filibuster rules so they could pass. The next night,
Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to sign them (the only bills
mentioned by name in her convention speech).

Gerrymandering may be as old as the republic, but so is the fight for
fair maps. At the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787,
James Madison insisted on the provision used to give Congress the
power to override local politicians. It used “words of great
latitude,” he explained, because “it was impossible to foresee all
the abuses” that might come. “Whenever the State Legislatures had
a favorite measure to carry, they would take care so to mould their
regulations as to favor the candidates they wished to succeed.”

Meanwhile, voters will go to the polls to choose their representatives
— but too often, the representatives will choose the voters. And the
Congress that would consider reform will be one disfigured by biased
rules and manipulative maps.

_Michael Waldman
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president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of
Law. A nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving
systems of democracy and justice, the Brennan Center is a leading
national voice on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice
reform, and constitutional law. Waldman, a constitutional lawyer and
writer who is an expert on the presidency and American democracy, has
led the Center since 2005. He was a member of the Presidential
Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States in 2021._

_The Brennan Center for Justice [[link removed]]
is a nonpartisan law and policy institute. We strive to uphold the
values of democracy. We stand for equal justice and the rule of law.
We work to craft and advance reforms that will make American democracy
work, for all._

* Gerrymandering
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* House of Representatives
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* redistricting
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* black representation
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