2025-10-24
46 分钟John Adams had a vision.
The representative assembly, he wrote in 1776, should be,
quote, in miniature, an exact portrait of the people.
Today, politicians across the country are considering not how to create that exact portrait,
but how to maximize power.
In state houses, the battle over redistricting has gotten hotter.
And in Washington, the Supreme Court has once again returned to the subject of gerrymandering.
At the heart of the case is a tension between the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act,
neither of which was around when John Adams imagined his perfect legislature.
I'm Charlotte Howard and this is Checks and Balance from The Economist.
Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.
Today, racial gerrymandering, the Supreme Court, and the midterm elections.
A majority of the justices appear skeptical that the country still needs main provisions of the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.
How would the Court's decision affect the frenzy of redistricting now underway from California to North Carolina?
And what would this mean for the balance of power in Congress?
Hello, I'm here with James Bennett and Steve Cole both in the New York office.
This is very exciting The Americans have officially freed ourselves of our British overlords finally 250 years later.
How are you?
I'm very well.
Thank you.