Prof. Shapiro: “Gerrymandering the Constitution: More than statehouse politics at risk”

In advance of Tuesday morning’s Supreme Court oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, Professor Carolyn Shapiro has published an opinion piece in The Hill outlining the dangers of “extreme partisan gerrymandering.” An excerpt from the introduction follows:

The primary issue in Gill is whether partisan gerrymandering can be challenged in court at all and, if so, when is such gerrymandering unconstitutional.

But the stakes here are much higher than whether the challenged districts in Wisconsin, where Gill arose, should be redrawn. Left unchecked, partisan gerrymandering could lead to permanent and profoundly undemocratic changes to the Constitution itself.

When taken to an extreme, partisan gerrymandering can result in a significant skew between the statewide vote and the partisan make-up of a state’s legislature or congressional delegation.