On gerrymandering, here’s the right question: Is it good for democracy?

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week about an issue as old as America itself: gerrymandering. The question before justices is whether Wisconsin’s extreme version of gerrymandering — shaping electoral districts with the explicit goal of helping one party maximize its power — is unconstitutional because it effectively disenfranchises voters with different views and affiliations.

Conservatives from Chief Justice John Roberts to columnist George Will argue that after 200-plus years of deference, it is madness for the judiciary to try to dictate to the state legislatures of America what they can and can’t do in redistricting. Roberts says it would lead Americans to see all judges’ decisions about the fairness or unfairness of election districts as driven by partisanship, thus discrediting the courts.

These are fair and relevant points. But the counterargument Justice Sonia Sotomayor made at last week’s hearing is even more powerful: Shouldn’t the basis for our thinking about gerrymandering be whether it is good for democracy? Whatever the precedent, asked Sotomayor, why should it be acceptable that a party that “gets a minority of votes can get the majority of seats?” This is what happened in 2012 in Wisconsin, when district boundaries drawn by Republicans allowed them to win 60 of the 99 seats in the state Assembly despite receiving only 48.6 percent of the two-party statewide vote.

This distortion of democracy isn’t limited to Republicans. As a current battle over redistricting in Maryland shows, Democrats also play hardball. Long before California’s voters adopted redistricting reforms in 2008 and 2010, its Democrats were notorious for district-rigging after the 1980 census.

No matter who does it, it’s anti-democratic. A ruling invalidating Wisconsin’s boundaries may create a thicket, as Roberts warns. But it would also send a needed message to partisans in the state capitols of America: Restrain yourselves.

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