A 214-Year-Old Word for a Problem as Old as Districts Themselves
The word "gerrymander" is over two centuries old, but the underlying temptation, drawing district lines to help yourself politically, is as old as the idea of geographic representation itself. Here's how the word was born and how the legal and technical landscape around it has changed since.
Sources & Further Reading
- National Archives, Constitution Annotated: Article I, Section 4 (Elections Clause)
- U.S. Census Bureau, Congressional Apportionment
- U.S. Census Bureau, Redistricting Data Program
- National Conference of State Legislatures, Redistricting Commissions: Congressional Plans
- National Conference of State Legislatures, Redistricting Criteria
- Oyez / Supreme Court of the United States, Baker v. Carr (1962)
- Oyez / Supreme Court of the United States, Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
- Oyez / Supreme Court of the United States, Shaw v. Reno (1993)
- Supreme Court of the United States, Rucho v. Common Cause (2019)
- Supreme Court of the United States, Allen v. Milligan (2023)
- Supreme Court of the United States, Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015)
- Stephanopoulos, N. & McGhee, E., "Partisan Gerrymandering and the Efficiency Gap," University of Chicago Law Review (2015)
- Brennan Center for Justice, Redistricting Commissions: What Works
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gerrymandering
- PlanScore, Measuring Partisan Bias in District Plans
This page draws on the U.S. Constitution and its Annotated Constitution guide published by Congress.gov, official U.S. Census Bureau documentation of the reapportionment and redistricting process, published Supreme Court opinions and Oyez case summaries, the National Conference of State Legislatures' state-by-state tracking of redistricting rules and commissions, the Brennan Center for Justice's research on commission design, and the peer-reviewed law review article that introduced the efficiency gap metric. Redistricting law and state commission rules change between census cycles; state-specific details are current as of the 2020 Census redistricting cycle and should be verified against a state's own election authority for the most current maps and rules.