Striking Down Gerrymandering

There's a good line in the campy sci-fi horror flick The Return of Swamp Thing from 1989. Appalled to discover that her diabolical scientist father is – surprise! –  hatching an evil plot to live forever, the heroine asks: "Immortality? Yuk! What did you do, sell your soul to the devil?" "More like a lease with an option to buy," her father replies.

Few loaded euphemisms better sum up the goings-on in the sprawling, drain-proof swamp that is Washington, D.C. But now, the worst thing the swamp has produced is on trial for its life, and it will take far more than devilish doublespeak to save it.

In a matter of weeks or days, the U.S. Supreme Court will render a decision on gerrymandering, the dark art where politicians draw political district boundaries to choose their voters instead of the other way around.

Should the high court decide to outlaw gerrymandering, Americans of all stripes should cheer, but conservatives in particular should be leading the cheers – that is, if they believe protecting the Constitution from political perversion is still a cause worth fighting for. At a time when political allegiances are variable and volatile, the founding idea of the Constitution, and public allegiance to it, should always be a North Star.

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