Redistricting Bill Now Law

October 15, 2009

WASHINGTON -

President Smith signed the Congressional District Reform Act into law yesterday, which will create vast changes in the way congressional districts will be redrawn this coming year.

This bill was forced upon by the Supreme Court in a groundbreaking ruling stating that overly-convoluted districts were unconstitutional and that they should be “fixed” before the next redistricting.

The solution that took Congress two years to hammer out would be to limit the length of district boundaries relative to the district’s area. This is represented by this formula: The circumference of a congressional district cannot be greater than twice the area of the district, or C ≤ 2A.

This means that a rectangle that was 400 miles long and 5 miles wide could not be a congressional district, while a rectangle 40 miles long by 5 miles wide would just make the cutoff.

Inspiration: http://www.slate.com/id/2140054/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering