This is the Cator Daily Podcast for Wednesday, February 21st, 2018. I'm Caleb Brown.

What makes a district gerrymandered and who gets to decide?

Do state legislatures really hold all the power here?

Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, says Congress has some power,

but it's never been used.

The Supreme Court takes up gerrymandering this term.

How often does the Supreme Court get a gerrymandering case,

and what is the typical result when that when the court deals with gerrymandering

is an issue?

Every so often a case is brought to the Supreme Court urging them to develop a constitutional remedy for partisan gerrymandering.

This has happened a couple of times in the past.

The last one was Vith versus Jubilee.

What was it, 11 years years ago I've lost count to and because the

Supreme Court has been closely divided on this with Anthony Kennedy the swing

vote I know that sounds so unusual for Anthony Kennedy with the swing vote. I know that sounds so unusual for Anthony Kennedy

to be the swing vote, but these cases have come down to a close split between

the liberal and conservative wings in which the liberal wing would like to announce a constitutional standard saying

that courts hereby are authorized to intervene and correct partisan

germ matters and the conservatives after authorized to intervene and correct partisan Germaners.

And the Conservatives, after sort of playing along with the possibility for a while,

Justice Scalia said in the last round in Vith,

no we've been trying for a while,

...