I lived in the famous New Jersey "contiguous only to yachtsmen" gerrymandered district -- until the latest gerrymander, which put me back in a Republican district. Rectangular districts would make some sense, but gerrymandering goes back to the 19th century. Computer programs that are in use now would probably get around even that requirement. You'd see districts that are 250 miles long and a mile wide.
Paradoxically, the VRA is directly responsible for the current Republican congressional majority.
They could try to get around the rectangular requirement with computer algorithms - but they couldn’t be nearly as “flexible” as they are today.
“Paradoxically, the VRA is directly responsible for the current Republican congressional majority.”
Yep. The same thing happened in Ohio. The Lou Stokes district (I call it that because his successors have been nonentities but he was not) came about because of a deal between the black Democrats and the GOP. The white Dems hated it but couldn’t say modell about it.