FrontPage: Do you support drawing districts in order
to “ensure” minorities win seats in Congress?
Last Word: 5.2/5.3 due Wednesday
Bending the
Rules: District
Drawing and
Gerrymandering
The Intersection of Politics and
“Creative” Drawing…
Background Questions

Who is given the power to draw Congressional
districts?
 Why
might this be problematic without some kind
of control?

Give an example of one problem that occurred
(or might have occurred) in states before the
courts began to get involved in cases dealing
with the drawing of Congressional districts.
Wesberry vs. Sanders

James P. Wesberry, Jr., was one of the citizens of Fulton County, Georgia, who filed
suit challenging the state apportionment law. Georgia's 5th Congressional District,
which included Fulton County, was one of five voting districts created by a 1931
Georgia law. By 1960, the population of the 5th district had grown to such an extent
that its single congressman had to represent two to three times as many voters as
did congressmen in the other Georgia districts.

What was the problem with the 5th district in Georgia, according to Wesberry?

Do you think it was fair to have this district?

What was the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case?
Because of Court decisions, for
many years these two rules
govern district drawing…

#1 - Must be COMPACT and
CONTIGUOUS

#2 - Must have about the same number of
PEOPLE
Shaw vs. Reno (1993)
NC state legislature submitted a plan that included
two majority-minority districts, one of an
unusual shape.

Certain residents of the district believed that the state may have violated
the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, which prevents
any state from discriminating (making unfair distinctions) against
persons according to their race.
Should states be
allowed to draw
districts like this,
especially if they
benefit minorities?
Shaw vs. Reno (1993)

The district was unconstitutional…it violated the
Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment.

Race can be one factor when drawing Congressional
districts, but it cannot be used as a predominant factor
when redrawing congressional districts, unless there was
some compelling state interest such as eliminating racial
discrimination.

Redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of
strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause, BUT…
 Groups
doing redistricting must be conscious of
race to the extent that they must ensure
compliance with the Voting Rights Act.
The Intersection of Politics
and Creative Drawing…

When parties draw district boundaries,
they want to gain any kind of advantage
they can…
 What
do we call the drawing of district
boundaries to favor one party or type of
candidate over another?
 What
is the goal of gerrymandering?
Example of Packing and
Cracking
Illinois’ 4th
The Illinois 4th
Congressional District is
a Hispanic majority
district in parts of the
North Side and the
southwest side of
Chicago.
 It surrounds a black
majority district, the 7th
district.



It is ten miles wide,
and runs along railroad
tracks, forest
preserves, and
cemeteries.
The Supreme Court
declined to hear a suit
about the 4th district.
Close-up of the 4th
Close-up of Illinois’1st

Aided by computer, Texas District 22 was produced by
for former Rep. Tom DeLay, a Republican.

California’s 23rd district
North Carolina’s 12th
Close to home…