Welcome to the Age of the Robertsmander
The chief justice has let partisan gerrymanders flourish, and created the conditions for near-permanent minority rule.
Voting-rights protesters outside the US Supreme Court as the justices heard the reargument of Louisiana v. Callais, which is poised to undo Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Poor Elbridge Gerry has gotten a bad rap. Gerrymandering is named after the long-ago Massachusetts governor, even though state legislators from his party drew the wildly creative state senate districts around Boston that would keep Federalist candidates out of power and condemn the founding father to infamy.
But today’s gerrymanders aren’t his fault. Perhaps they should bear the name of the man responsible for them.
Maybe we should call it the Robertsmander
Author summary: Gerrymanders flourish under the chief justice.