Abstract
When politicians are given free rein to draw districts, they choose their voters rather than allowing the voters to choose their representatives. They rely on “highprofile paid consultants, armies of lawyers, terabytes worth of voting data, advanced software, and even a supercomputer or two”386 to guarantee large margins for their party. This decennial process has reduced electoral competition, made the House of Representatives less responsive,388 and spread a sentiment of disenfranchisement throughout the electorate.
Now is the time for the judiciary—staffed by judges whose role in our constitutional system is to check the political branches—to take decisive action to protect American democracy from those who seek to undermine it. Instead, the Supreme Court passed responsibility on to the state courts with an empty promise that voters’ “complaints about districting [would not] echo into a void.”390 Millions of voters in Kansas, North Carolina, and New Hampshire are currently yelling into the hole where the judiciary once was. But it does not have to be this way. If the void is the night sky, there are still guiding stars—if there is the political will to follow them.
Recommended Citation
Avery E. Emery, Echoing into the Void: Rucho’s State-Level Progeny, 2024 ULR 1131 (2024).