The most dangerous gerrymander yet?

The redistricting arms race is expanding into new states, and this month Missouri became the latest testing ground for a gerrymandering strategy that has nothing to do with voters and everything to do with power.

State lawmakers just jammed through a mid-decade congressional map in violation of both the Missouri Constitution and basic democratic principles. The map doesn’t just tilt the playing field — it tears it up.

Within hours of its passage, our strategic litigation partner Campaign Legal Center (CLC), filed a lawsuit to stop the map from taking effect. The legal challenge is straightforward: Missouri’s Constitution only permits congressional redistricting once per decade, following the U.S. Census. By redrawing districts midstream, knowing full-well it was unconstitutional to do so, the legislature violated the Constitution it swore to defend.

The Constitution also requires that districts be as compact as possible so that communities with shared interests can elect representatives who actually reflect them. Instead, lawmakers carved Kansas City into three districts, scattering its voters into distant rural areas. And in their haste, they even managed a glaring error — assigning some Kansas City voters to two different congressional districts.

https://www.brightamerica.org/p/the-most-dangerous-gerrymander-yet