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Gerrymandering (Almost) Gone Wild: How The Supreme Court Saved Independent Redistricting Reform, Michael Woods

Florida Law Review

Elections have consequences. In the 2010 U.S. midterm elections, the Republican Party made historic congressional gains. After the election, much political discourse focused on the incoming battle between the new Republican Congress and President Barack Obama. Yet the midterm results affected much more than the presidential agenda, as the Republican Party also achieved impressive state-level gains that resulted in control of many legislative chambers nationwide. These sweeping state-level gains did not affect policy alone. The Democratic Party—and the Republican Party in several “blue” states—paid a drastic price: the gerrymandered results of the 2010 decennial redistricting cycle.

As a partisan tool, …