Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Goes All Supreme On Neil Gorsuch With ‘Gerrymandering’ Retort

Ruth Bader Ginsburg clapped back at new colleague Neil Gorsuch in a biting riposte on Tuesday as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford, a case before the court challenging partisan gerrymandering.

“Maybe we can just for a second talk about the arcane matter of the Constitution,” Gorsuch, appointed by President Trump earlier this year, said. He then went onto implicitly argue that the Constitution did not authorize the federal government to regulate how states draw their lines for legislative districts.

“Where did ‘one person, one vote’ come from?” Ginsburg retorted, citing the provision in the Constitution which guarantees equal representation to citizens of the United States in their representative assemblies.

Gill v. Whitford could be a landmark case – it’s the first time the Court will decide whether it is okay for one party to redistrict legislative constituencies to advantage their party and its members. The court’s existing doctrine has only prohibited race-based gerrymandering.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.