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Voting Rights Act of 1965 Essay

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The history of “gerrymandering” started during the term of Elbridge Gerry, the Governor of Massachusetts, when he approved an obscure redistricting plan ahead of the 1812 elections that helped Republicans hold on to power in the legislature. One of the redistricted districts that primarily consisted of a one party defendant was shaped as a salamander, which later gave rise to this political term (Keck, 2010). The term relates to the drawing of the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one party an unfair advantage over its rivals, which gives rise to the disproportionate representation of Democratic and Republican parties (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). Historically, both parties have used this form of redistricting to …show more content…

The Supreme Court reversed the ruling and held that bipartisan gerrymanders are constitutionally acceptable.
In Davis v. Bandemer (1986), the Supreme Court held that partisan gerrymandering violated the Equal Protection Clause, but the court couldn’t agree on the appropriate constitutional standard against which legality claims of partisan gerrymandering should and should not be evaluated. Justice White said that partisan gerrymandering occurred when a redistricting was enacted with the both the intent and the effect of discriminating against an identifiable political group. Justices Powell and Stevens said that partisan gerrymandering should be based on multiple factors, such as electoral district shape, adherence to local government boundaries. Justices O'Connor, Burger, and Rehnquist disagreed and held that such claims should be dismissed (Issacharoff, Karlan, & Pildes, pp. 777-779).
Gerrymandering is often compared to redistricting which is supposed to achieve equality in districts’ voting power, so called “one person, one vote” requirement. In the U.S. redistricting happens every 10 years to account for changes in population, so “the votes will be worth the same amount” (The James Irvine Foundation ). Gerrymandering is based on the wasting or weakening of votes of what is usually the minority

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