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On the narrow question in Rucho, I don't see why allegations that districts were drawn for partisan advantage is nonjusticiable while other questions of district drawing (ex, racial discrimination) are. If the court wanted to declare that any question of why districts were drawn particular ways were nonjusticiable that would be consistent. But they haven't done that and I am skeptical they will so I don't see why a partisan motivation, specifically, is nonjusticiable.
On the broader question I don't think it would be unreasonable to read substantive requirements for district drawing into the equal protection clause. Ideally these requirements wouldn't reference partisnaship as such but I think the natural effect of such requirements would be to reduce the possibility for partisan gerrymandering. I think when people complain about a lack of representation when discussing districts like Virginia's new 11, 7, 1, and 8 they are getting at something real and constitutionally cognizable. Compare also the TN 2020 map with the 2024 map. Am I to believe the interests of the people of Nashville are equally well represented when they are all together in the 5th district as when they are split between the 5th, 6th, and 7th district? And the constitution has nothing to say about this effective denial of the ability of a political community to have a representative represent them?
Race is a real and justiciable subject matter for electoral law by constitutional fiat (specifically the 15th amendment).
The constitution doesn’t give representation to “political communities”. The constitution gives representation to states and to the people. What if Nashville voted 85% Democrat? Maybe putting them all in one district is a partisan gerrymander? Is disproportionate representation okay because some areas happen to contain high-densities of single-party voters? There’s no way to get a satisfactory answer to these questions from a judicial process.
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