Gerrymandering: Gill Vs. Whitford Case

Gerrymandering is a practice used when electoral districts are being set and are used to create a political advantage for specific group or party by manipulating district boundaries. For example, if one state was more likely to vote Republican you could have the area redrawn into an opposing district to win to allow better results for the opposing party.

Elbridge Gerry was a governor of Massachusetts and in 1812 signed a law that would benefit his party creating a new district in the state. The Boston Gazette would first use the term on March 26, 1812, by combining Elbridge Gerry's last name and the word salamander.

Gerrymandering is currently legal as there aren’t any laws that prohibit its use. However, some courts have ruled some gerrymandering cases as unconstitutional. It is believed that Gill v. Whitford case could bring about new regulations to the Gerrymandering.
Whitford debated whether the Wisconsin state map is unconstitutional because it gave the Republican party an unfair advantage. In 2011 the Republicans drew Wisconsin’s map and later won control of both chambers of the Legislature and the Governor's office. William Whitford, a retired University Wisconsin Law School teacher and twelve Democrats would sue the state with the claim the Democrat’s votes were reduced because of the Republicans map. The Court would find the map to be unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and request a new map to be