Jersey City UnitedAgainst the New Ward Map v. Jersey City Ward Commission - Harvard Law Review

Jersey City UnitedAgainst the New Ward Map v. Jersey City Ward Commission - Harvard Law Review

The compactness requirement has become a rule without a ruler. To curb gerrymandering, many state and local laws require electoral districts to be compact. Yet courts — faced with uncertainty over how to measure compactness and what level of compactness is sufficient — have shied away from developing workable standards to assess and enforce those compactness requirements. Recently, in Jersey City United Against the New Ward Map v. Jersey City Wa…