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16 

RUCHO v. COMMON CAUSE 

Opinion of the Court 

tiate  unconstitutional  from  “constitutional  political  gerry-
mandering.”  Cromartie, 526 U. S., at 551. 

B 
Partisan gerrymandering claims rest on an instinct that
groups  with  a  certain  level  of  political  support  should 
enjoy  a  commensurate  level  of  political  power  and  influ-
ence.  Explicitly or implicitly, a districting map is alleged 
to be unconstitutional because it makes it too difficult for 
one party to translate statewide support into seats in the
legislature.   But  such  a  claim  is  based  on  a  “norm  that 
does  not  exist”  in  our  electoral  system—“statewide  elec-
tions  for  representatives  along  party  lines.”    Bandemer, 
478 U. S., at 159 (opinion of O’Connor, J.).

for  proportional  representation. 

Partisan  gerrymandering  claims  invariably  sound  in  a
desire 
As  Justice 
O’Connor  put  it,  such  claims  are  based  on  “a  conviction 
that  the  greater  the  departure  from  proportionality,  the
more  suspect  an  apportionment  plan  becomes.” 
Ibid. 
“Our  cases,  however,  clearly  foreclose  any  claim  that  the
Constitution  requires  proportional  representation  or  that 
legislatures  in  reapportioning  must  draw  district  lines  to 
come as near as possible to allocating seats to the contend-
ing  parties  in  proportion  to  what  their  anticipated 
statewide vote will be.”  Id., at 130 (plurality opinion).  See 
Mobile  v.  Bolden,  446  U. S.  55,  75–76  (1980)  (plurality 
opinion)  (“The  Equal  Protection  Clause  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  does  not  require  proportional  representation 
as an imperative of political organization.”).

The  Founders  certainly  did  not  think  proportional  rep-
resentation  was  required.  For  more  than  50  years  after 
ratification of the Constitution, many States  elected their
congressional representatives through at-large or “general 
ticket”  elections.  Such  States  typically  sent  single-party
delegations to Congress.  See E. Engstrom, Partisan Gerry-
mandering  and  the  Construction  of  American  Democracy