====== Gerrymandering ======

Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing the boundaries of electoral districts to favor a particular political party, incumbent, or group of voters, typically at the expense of compactness, contiguity, or proportional representation. The term derives from Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry, whose 1812 approval of an oddly shaped state senate district was likened to a salamander by contemporary critics, giving rise to the portmanteau "gerry-mander." In the United States, the practice is distinct from [[redistricting]] itself-the periodic redrawing of district lines required after each decennial census-though the two terms are frequently conflated in public discussion. Whether a given map constitutes a gerrymander, as opposed to an ordinary exercise of legislative discretion, is itself a matter of dispute; see [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-legal-pejorative-viewpoint]].

===== Current State =====

Redistricting in the United States takes place in each state about every ten years, after the decennial census, defining geographical boundaries with each district required to be geographically contiguous and to contain about the same number of voters. In most states the process is controlled by state legislatures and sometimes the governor, while in some states an independent commission draws the boundaries instead. When one party controls a state's legislature and governorship, it is positioned to draw district lines to advantage its own candidates and disadvantage opponents, and since 2010 detailed voter data and high-speed computing have made this process considerably more precise.

Two primary techniques are used to gerrymander: "packing," in which opposing voters are concentrated into a small number of districts to limit their influence elsewhere, and "cracking," in which an opposing voting bloc is split across multiple districts to dilute its electoral power.

Two categories of gerrymandering claims have dominated litigation: **partisan gerrymandering**, in which districts are drawn to favor a political party, and **racial gerrymandering**, in which race is used as the predominant factor in drawing lines, potentially violating the [[voting-rights-act-1965]] or the Equal Protection Clause. In *Rucho v. Common Cause* (2019), the U.S. Supreme Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of federal courts, leaving such challenges to state courts and state constitutions. Racial gerrymandering claims remain justiciable in federal court, though the Supreme Court's 2026 ruling in *Louisiana v. Callais* narrowed the practical reach of Section 2 of the VRA; see [[voting-rights-act-of-1965-viewpoint-section-2-scope-debate]].

Beginning in mid-2025, a wave of mid-decade redistricting-redrawing maps outside the normal post-census cycle-spread across both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states ahead of the 2026 [[united-states-house-of-representatives]] elections. Redistricting mid-cycle, not in response to a census, is rare; according to the Voting Rights Lab, from 1970 until 2026 only two states had previously redrawn their congressional maps mid-decade. Texas initiated the current cycle by redrawing its congressional map at the urging of President Trump to add Republican-leaning seats; Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and several other Republican-led states followed. California, Illinois, and New York signaled they would pursue mid-decade redistricting of their own to add Democratic-leaning seats in response, with California voters approving a new map that suspended the state's independent redistricting commission. Litigation over these maps is ongoing in multiple states as of mid-2026; see [[gerrymandering-history]] for fuller background and [[gerrymandering-controversy-2025-2026-mid-decade-redistricting-controversy]].

No broad, independently-arrived-at consensus exists among researchers on whether partisan gerrymandering can be reliably distinguished from ordinary political map-drawing, or on which fairness metric, if any, should govern map evaluation; see the note at the end of this article.

===== Viewpoints =====

  * **Legal-pejorative viewpoint** - holds that "gerrymandering" is properly understood as a value-laden term for redistricting that crosses a line into unfair partisan or racial advantage, rather than a neutral technical category, making its application to any specific map inherently contestable. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-legal-pejorative-viewpoint]]
  * **Reform/anti-gerrymandering viewpoint** - holds that partisan and racial gerrymandering undermine representative government by allowing politicians to choose their voters rather than the reverse, and favors independent redistricting commissions, mathematical compactness standards, or judicial review as remedies. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-reform-viewpoint]]
  * **Political-process viewpoint** - holds that redistricting has always been a political exercise conducted by elected officials accountable to voters, that some degree of partisan advantage-seeking is an ordinary and constitutionally permissible feature of self-government, and that judicial or commission-based remedies substitute unelected judgment for democratic accountability. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-political-process-viewpoint]]
  * **Race-conscious-remedy viewpoint** - holds that race-conscious districting is sometimes necessary and lawful to remedy historical vote dilution and to ensure minority communities can elect candidates of their choice under Section 2 of the VRA. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-race-conscious-remedy-viewpoint]]
  * **Colorblind-districting viewpoint** - holds that using race as a factor in drawing district lines is itself a constitutional harm regardless of the political party benefited, and that race-based remedies for past discrimination cannot indefinitely justify race-based districting in the present. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-colorblind-districting-viewpoint]]
  * **Mathematical-fairness viewpoint** - holds that gerrymandering can be identified and constrained using quantitative metrics (e.g., efficiency gap, compactness scores), and that adopting such standards would depoliticize redistricting. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-mathematical-fairness-viewpoint]]
  * **Symmetric-retaliation viewpoint** - holds that in the absence of enforceable national standards, a party that unilaterally forgoes gerrymandering while opponents do not simply cedes power, making retaliatory or matching redistricting a rational and defensible response rather than an escalation. [[gerrymandering-viewpoint-symmetric-retaliation-viewpoint]]

===== Controversies =====

  * The 2025-2026 mid-decade redistricting wave, in which Texas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and other states redrew congressional maps outside the normal census cycle ahead of the 2026 midterms, drawing accusations of a partisan "race to the bottom" from both sides. [[gerrymandering-controversy-2025-2026-mid-decade-redistricting-controversy]]
  * *Louisiana v. Callais*, decided by the Supreme Court in 2026, addressing whether Louisiana's creation of a second majority-black congressional district was a constitutionally impermissible racial gerrymander, and substantially reshaping the standard for Section 2 claims nationwide. [[gerrymandering-controversy-louisiana-v-callais-controversy]]
  * The Texas 2025 mid-decade map, challenged as an illegal racial gerrymander by a federal court in El Paso before the U.S. Supreme Court stayed that ruling and later allowed the map to take effect for 2026. [[gerrymandering-controversy-texas-2025-map-controversy]]

===== Related Pages =====

  * History: [[gerrymandering-history]]
  * Debate: [[gerrymandering-debate-mathematical-metrics-validity-debate]]
  * Viewpoint Debate: [[gerrymandering-reform-vs-political-process-viewpoint-debate]]
  * Controversy: [[gerrymandering-controversy-2025-2026-mid-decade-redistricting-controversy]], [[gerrymandering-controversy-louisiana-v-callais-controversy]]
  * Related Main Topics: [[redistricting]], [[voting-rights-act-1965]], [[united-states-house-of-representatives]], [[united-states-supreme-court]]

**Note on consensus:** No broad, independently-arrived-at consensus exists among researchers on whether partisan gerrymandering can be reliably distinguished from ordinary political map-drawing, or on which fairness metric (if any) should govern map evaluation. Institutional positions-e.g., from advocacy organizations or the Supreme Court's *Rucho* majority-reflect institutional or legal conclusions rather than independent scientific consensus, and are treated as viewpoints rather than consensus findings.

===== Footnotes =====

  - Wikipedia contributors, "Gerrymandering in the United States," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, last modified 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering_in_the_United_States.
  - Wikipedia contributors, "2025-2026 United States redistricting," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, last modified 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_United_States_redistricting.
  - Brennan Center for Justice, "Gerrymandering Explained," Brennan Center for Justice, accessed June 26, 2026, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/gerrymandering-explained.
  - Brennan Center for Justice, "Redistricting Litigation Roundup," Brennan Center for Justice, accessed June 26, 2026, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/redistricting-litigation-roundup-0.
  - Campaign Legal Center, "What Is Gerrymandering?," Campaign Legal Center, accessed June 26, 2026, https://campaignlegal.org/update/what-gerrymandering.
  - Ben Schneer, interview, "Explainer: What's Happening with Gerrymandering in the United States-and Who Will 'Win' the Redistricting Battle?," Harvard Kennedy School, May 4, 2026, https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/democracy-governance/explainer-whats-happening-gerrymandering-united.
  - Voting Rights Lab, "An Emerging Trend: Mid-Decade Redistricting," Voting Rights Lab, May 26, 2026, https://votingrightslab.org/2026/05/26/an-emerging-trend-mid-decade-redistricting/.
  - GovFacts, "Redistricting and Gerrymandering: How Electoral Maps Shape Democracy," GovFacts, last modified May 31, 2026, https://govfacts.org/elections-voting/elections-systems/redistricting-gerrymandering/redistricting-and-gerrymandering-how-electoral-maps-shape-democracy/.