In fact, the results of the 2018 election — Democrats won a majority of the popular vote, and a majority of House seats, despite contesting the races on a GOP-gerrymandered map — showed that the practical need for a court ruling was overblown in the first place. The Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman and Ally Flinn had previously found that redistricting explained only 17 percent of the decline in competitive congressional districts between 1997 and 2017.

Gerrymandering was not destiny; and, even without the justices’ involvement, it is not being allowed unchecked by other institutions of government, especially those at the state level. Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Missouri and Utah approved referendums in 2018 that will reduce partisanship in redistricting after the 2020 Census.

The issue is now in the hands of voters at the grass roots, which is where it should be. A great danger — the corruption of the federal courts by repetitive intervention in sordid partisan fights — has been averted.