2.3 Congressional Behavior

• Trustee: votes based on their own judgment of what's best, even if constituents disagree. The idea is often linked to the Irish-born British statesman Edmund Burke.
• Delegate: votes the way their constituents want, acting as their voice.
• Politico: switches between the two depending on the issue, acting as a delegate on issues voters care about intensely and as a trustee on others.

Polarization means the parties have moved further apart ideologically, with fewer moderates in the middle. Party-line votes have become far more common in recent decades.

Divided government means the president's party doesn't control both chambers of Congress: the other party holds the House, the Senate or both. It tends to bring more vetoes, more oversight investigations and harder fights over nominations. Members of Congress are especially likely to vote against the initiatives and appointments of a lame-duck president, one near the end of a final term.

Gridlock is the inability to pass major legislation. Polarization and divided government both make it more likely. Some see gridlock as the system working as designed, preventing hasty laws; others see it as a failure to solve problems.

After each census, House seats are reapportioned among the states by population. Then each state redraws its district lines; this is redistricting. In most states the legislature draws the lines, though some use independent commissions.

Gerrymandering is drawing district lines to benefit a party or group. Mapmakers pack opponents' voters into a few districts or crack them across many districts so they're outvoted everywhere. Partisan gerrymandering creates safe seats, which can push members toward their party's base and add to polarization.

Facts: Tennessee hadn't redrawn its state legislative districts since 1901, even though many people had moved to cities. A rural district might have a fraction of the population of an urban one, yet each elected the same number of legislators. Charles Baker, a voter in Shelby County, sued, arguing that this diluted his vote.

Holding: In a 6–2 decision, the Court ruled that federal courts can hear challenges to legislative apportionment. These cases are justiciable, meaning suitable for courts to decide, not “political questions” left only to legislatures. The claim rested on the Equal Protection Clause.

Significance: Baker opened the door to the principle of “one person, one vote,” which the Court applied in 1964 to require districts with roughly equal populations for both state legislatures and the U.S. House.

Facts: After the 1990 census, North Carolina drew a second majority-Black congressional district to satisfy federal officials enforcing the Voting Rights Act. The new 12th District snaked about 160 miles, in places barely wider than an interstate highway. White voters challenged it.

Holding: In a 5–4 decision, the Court ruled that a district so oddly shaped that it can only be explained as an effort to separate voters by race can be challenged under the Equal Protection Clause and must face strict scrutiny, the toughest test courts use.

Significance: Race can't be the predominant factor in drawing districts unless the state has a compelling reason and narrowly tailors the map. Note a later contrast: in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Court held that partisan gerrymandering claims are political questions federal courts won't decide, while racial gerrymandering claims remain open to challenge.