Leah Melquist
Research Paper
1
Gerrymandering
As stated in the dictionary, gerrymandering is defined as, “manipulate the boundaries of
(an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class.” This has been an issue for over 200
years when the 1810 term of Massachusetts governor, Elbridge Gerry drew a “salamander”
shape district giving it the name “Gerrymander”. But, can we really place a fact of blame on the
governor given the constitution states and gives right to draw new districts? The constitution
states, “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but
each State shall have at Least one Representative.” Each state shall be reviewed every ten years
to determine how many representatives they will have. Of course, today the only sort of action
the Supreme Court has made was the elimination of redistricting done on the basis of race back
in 1986 and affirmed the ruling again in 1993 and 2017. Partisan gerrymandering still stands
although with many restrictions in place but the question remains if the Supreme Court is truly
doing enough to end this issue.
The current standing issue involving the Supreme Court is the fact that there is no
national regulation on creating district maps but varies state by state. There have been many
cases brought to the courts on determining whether some district maps are considered
violating the Constitution. Most cases are dealt with within state courts but there have been
many cases that have and will be going to the Supreme Court.
Leah Melquist
Research Paper
The most recent case that presented to the Supreme Court on April 4, 2018 was the city
of Maryland, Benisek v. Lamone. The court heard arguments on a “historic” gerrymandering
case which centers on the 6th Congressional District. Although in past cases, there was a
beneficial outcome for more towards the Democrats which I will discuss further down but the
Maryland case, Democrats’ “overt line–drawing” is the reason for trial. Former Democratic
Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley exclaimed that Democrats, “drew lines to elevate their
congressional majority from 6 out of 8 seats to 7 out of 8,” according to the Washington Post.
O’Malley states in an interview, “If there were a Republican governor, he or she would be
drawing those orders in a way that was more advantageous to the Republican Party and if we
had a Democratic governor, that I would be drawing those districts in a way that was more
