Isabella Carter
Racial gerrymandering is the manipulation of political district boundaries to benefit a specific racial group. While the practice is illegal under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which guarantee equal protection under the law and prohibit race-based voting discrimination, it has been a pervasive feature of American politics since the country's founding. The Supreme Court has struggled to define the types of gerrymandering and the standards that should be used to determine which redistricting maps are unconstitutional. The Court has held that if a jurisdiction's redistricting plan violates the Equal Protection Clause or Voting Rights Act of 1965, a federal court must order the jurisdiction to propose a new plan. However, the Court's recent rulings have made it more difficult to challenge partisan gerrymandering, and by extension, racial gerrymandering, leaving voters of color vulnerable to the dilution of their voting power.
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What You'll Learn
The Supreme Court's stance on racial gerrymandering
In 1993, the Supreme Court first recognized racial gerrymandering as a constitutional claim in Shaw v. Reno, invalidating a North Carolina congressional district due to its unusual shape and predominantly racial basis. This set a precedent for scrutinizing redistricting maps that prioritized race over traditional principles like compactness.
The Court further addressed racial gerrymandering in Miller v. Johnson (1995), holding that redistricting plans must be subjected to strict scrutiny if race was the predominant factor in drawing district lines. This ruling affirmed that racial gerrymandering violates constitutional rights.
In 2010, the Supreme Court struck down state legislative districts in Alabama and Virginia and congressional districts in North Carolina as racial gerrymanders during the redistricting cycle. The Court upheld the notion that racial considerations should not override traditional redistricting principles.
However, the Court has also made rulings that have made it more challenging to prove racial gerrymandering. In Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Court abandoned efforts to address partisan gerrymandering, making it harder to distinguish between partisan and racial gerrymandering in racially segregated areas.
Most recently, in 2023, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the relocation of 30,000 Black residents in South Carolina's congressional districts, suggesting that it may become even more difficult to win legal challenges against racial gerrymandering.
While the Supreme Court has provided some checks on racial gerrymandering, its recent decisions indicate a trend towards prioritizing partisan interests over racial equality in redistricting cases.
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Racial gerrymandering and the 14th Amendment
Racial gerrymandering is a legal claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court first recognized this claim in the 1993 case of Shaw v. Reno, in which it invalidated a North Carolina congressional district. The Court found that the district's highly irregular shape and other evidence indicated that its boundaries were drawn predominantly along racial lines, in an attempt to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Court rejected this interpretation, stating that Section 2 requires a minority group to be "sufficiently compact" within a geographic area before a majority-minority district is drawn.
Racial gerrymandering refers to the manipulation of political district boundaries to benefit or harm a specific racial group. It is a form of gerrymandering, which is the practice of redrawing district lines to benefit a particular group, typically a political party. In the context of racial gerrymandering, districts are drawn to maximize or minimize the impact of racial minority votes, often with the goal of diluting the minority vote. This practice is often challenged in court, with plaintiffs arguing that race was the predominant factor in drawing district lines, rather than traditional redistricting considerations such as compactness, contiguity, and respect for political subdivision lines.
The 14th Amendment, through the Equal Protection Clause, plays a crucial role in addressing racial gerrymandering. This clause requires that the apportionment and districting of state legislatures be based solely on population, without discrimination on the basis of race. The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to mean that redistricting plans must not be drawn predominantly on the basis of race. If a court determines that racial considerations predominated in the creation of a redistricting plan, that plan is considered a "racially gerrymandered" plan and is subjected to strict scrutiny.
Under strict scrutiny, a redistricting plan will be upheld as constitutional only if it is narrowly tailored to advance a compelling state interest. The Supreme Court has allowed for the possibility of compelling interests justifying racial gerrymandering, as seen in Bush v. Vera (1996), where the Court assumed that compliance with Section 2 or Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act could constitute compelling interests. However, in practice, courts have generally rejected racial gerrymandering claims, finding that racial considerations took precedence over traditional redistricting principles.
In summary, racial gerrymandering is a legal claim under the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, and the Supreme Court has played a significant role in recognizing and addressing this issue. The Court's decisions have set important precedents regarding the interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause and the Voting Rights Act, shaping the legal framework for addressing racial gerrymandering in redistricting plans across the United States.
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Racial gerrymandering and the 15th Amendment
Gerrymandering is the manipulation of political district boundaries to benefit a particular group, be it a racial or political group. Some forms of gerrymandering are prohibited by the Constitution, state law, and other rules. Racial gerrymandering is a legal claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees that citizens cannot be denied the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The amendment was passed following the Civil War to protect the voting rights of freed slaves. The amendment states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Racial gerrymandering, which involves manipulating district boundaries to maximize or minimize the impact of certain racial groups, has been deemed a violation of constitutional rights. In Miller v. Johnson (1995), the Supreme Court upheld decisions against redistricting that is purposely devised based on race. The Court found that racial gerrymandering "may balkanize us into competing racial factions; it threatens to carry us further from the goal of a political system in which race no longer matters—a goal that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments embody, and to which the Nation continues to aspire."
In the past, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Equal Protection Clause as requiring the apportionment and districting of state legislatures solely on the basis of population. In Gomillion v. Lightfoot, the Court found a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment when a municipal boundary line was redrawn to exclude almost all African-Americans from the city, thereby continuing white domination of municipal elections.
In summary, racial gerrymandering, which aims to maximize or minimize the impact of certain racial groups, has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Court has interpreted the 15th Amendment as protecting the voting rights of racial minorities and requiring the apportionment and districting of state legislatures based solely on population.
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Racial gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act
Racial gerrymandering is a legal claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Constitution protects minority voters from maps that are racially gerrymandered. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) protects minority voters from maps that dilute their voting power. The VRA marked the first time that access to the ballot was genuinely available for all American voters, directly addressing racial discrimination in voting.
Racial gerrymandering is the manipulation of political district boundaries to benefit or harm an identifiable racial group. It is a form of gerrymandering that uses race as the predominant factor in assigning voters to districts. The Supreme Court has held that race cannot be the predominant factor in placing voters in certain districts. If a court determines that a district or map was constructed predominantly on the basis of race, the burden of proof is on the map-drawer to prove otherwise or that it was done to comply with a statute, usually the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a response to profound moral wrongs of racial discrimination in voting. It has been hailed as the most important and impactful civil rights legislation in history. The Act has had important partisan and racial consequences. Race-driven majority-minority districts are more or less set in stone as long as the current interpretation of Section 5 endures. The preclearance provision prohibits "retrogression", which is districting after a decennial census that reduces the number of safe minority legislative seats.
Racial gerrymandering claims have been litigated in various cases. In Shaw v. Reno (1993), the Supreme Court first recognized the constitutional claim of racial gerrymandering when it invalidated a North Carolina congressional district. In Miller v. Johnson (1995), the Court held that a redistricting plan must be subjected to strict scrutiny if the jurisdiction used race as the "predominant factor". In Bush v. Vera (1996), the Court assumed that compliance with Section 2 or 5 of the Act constituted compelling interests for racially gerrymandered districts. In Hunt v. Cromartie (1999) and Easley v. Cromartie (2001), the Court approved a racially focused gerrymandering of a congressional district on the grounds that it was partisan gerrymandering, which is constitutionally permissible.
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Racial gerrymandering and partisan gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is the manipulation of political district boundaries to benefit a particular group, be it a racial or political group. While some forms of gerrymandering are prohibited by the Constitution, state law, and other rules, the practice is nearly as old as representative government itself.
Racial gerrymandering is a legal claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. It was first recognized by the Supreme Court in the 1993 case Shaw v. Reno, which invalidated a North Carolina congressional district because the 150-mile-long district was drawn as a majority-minority Black district. The Court has also dealt with racial gerrymandering in cases such as Gomillion v. Lightfoot, where it found a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment in the redrawing of a municipal boundary line that excluded all but four or five of 400 African Americans but no whites, thus continuing white domination of municipal elections.
In 1995, the Supreme Court decided in Miller v. Johnson that racial gerrymandering is a violation of constitutional rights and upheld decisions against redistricting that is purposely devised based on race. The Court held that redistricting plans must be subjected to strict scrutiny if race was the "predominant factor" in determining how to draw district lines. The Court defined "predominance" as giving more priority to racial considerations than to traditional redistricting principles such as compactness, contiguity, and respect for political subdivisions or communities defined by actual shared interests.
Partisan gerrymandering, on the other hand, refers to redistricting that favors one political party while weakening another. It has a long tradition in the United States and has been used by both Democrats and Republicans. For example, in Pennsylvania, the Republican-dominated state legislature used gerrymandering to help defeat Democratic representative Frank Mascara in 2002.
There is overlap between racial and partisan gerrymandering, as minorities tend to favor Democratic candidates. The North Carolina redistricting in Rucho v. Common Cause dealt with both partisan and racial gerrymanders. However, racial gerrymanders can also be created without considerations of party lines. "Negative racial gerrymandering" refers to a process in which district lines are drawn to prevent racial minorities from electing their preferred candidates.
While the Supreme Court has held that bipartisan gerrymanders are constitutionally permissible under the Equal Protection Clause, it has also stated that gerrymandering for party advantage cannot be challenged in federal court. Various political and legal remedies have been proposed to diminish or prevent gerrymandering, as it ultimately harms the public by making elections less competitive and causing voters to feel like their votes don't matter.
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Frequently asked questions
No, racial gerrymandering is not legal under the US Constitution. Racial gerrymandering is the illegal manipulation of an electoral district's boundaries to alter its racial composition and dilute the clout of racial minorities.
The legal basis for challenging racial gerrymandering arises from various constitutional provisions, including the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Courts play a crucial role in addressing racial gerrymandering. They scrutinize redistricting plans and may declare them unconstitutional if they violate the Equal Protection Clause or the Voting Rights Act. The burden of proof typically falls on plaintiffs to demonstrate that race was the predominant factor in the map's design.
