The census, apportionment, and redistricting

The Constitution requires a census, a count of the population, every 10 years. After each census, the 435 seats in the House of Representatives are reapportioned, or divided among the states by population, so growing states can gain seats and shrinking states can lose them. States then redraw their congressional and legislative district lines, a process called redistricting, usually done by state legislatures, though some states use independent or bipartisan commissions. Gerrymandering is drawing district lines to give one party or group an advantage, often by "packing" opposing voters into a few districts or "cracking" them across many. In Baker v. Carr (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could hear challenges to how districts are drawn, leading to the "one person, one vote" principle that districts must have roughly equal populations. In Shaw v. Reno (1993), the Court ruled that districts drawn primarily on the basis of race can be challenged under the Equal Protection Clause. In Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), it held that claims of partisan gerrymandering are political questions that federal courts cannot decide, leaving them to states and Congress.

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