ConstitutionALE

Among all the flash point issues facing our country, gerrymandering may be the one that has the biggest impact on political divisiveness. And it's not new; it's actually a practice our nation has debated for more than 200 years.

The Constitution calls for a redistricting process to be done by the states every 10 years, taking into account new census numbers. When it's done in ways that anger people, that's typically when you hear start to hear gerrymandering critiques. That particularly American idiom dates to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry approved a partisan redistricting map in which one district resembled a salamander.

For a variety of reasons, there are several major partisan gerrymandering cases in courts throughout the United States, including a few pending with the Supreme Court. And several states, including Ohio, are working on developing legislation and ballot proposals to curtail partisan gerrymandering.

What does the Constitution say about this? How have legal and political scholars been interpreting the laws pertaining to gerrymandering through the decades? Is gerrymandering ever legal - or beneficial to constituents?

Join us for the first forum in our new series on the Constitution, a conversation with local legal experts on the past, present, and future of gerrymandering in the United States.