Cite as: 588 U. S. ____ (2019) 13 KAGAN, J., dissenting policy objectives”). In both those ways, partisan gerrymanders of the kind we confront here undermine the protections of “democracy embodied in the First Amendment.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U. S. 347, 357 (1976) (internal quotation marks omitted). Though different Justices have described the constitutional harm in diverse ways, nearly all have agreed on this much: Extreme partisan gerrymandering (as happened in North Carolina and Maryland) violates the Constitution. See, e.g., Vieth, 541 U. S., at 293 (plurality opinion) (“[A]n excessive injection of politics [in districting] is unlawful” (emphasis deleted)); id., at 316 (opinion of Kennedy, J.) (“[P]artisan gerrymandering that disfavors one party is [im]permissible”); id., at 362 (BREYER, J., dissenting) (Gerrymandering causing political “entrenchment” is a “violat[ion of] the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause”); Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U. S. 109, 132 (1986) (plurality opinion) (“[U]nconstitutional discrimination” occurs “when the electoral system is arranged in a manner that will consistently degrade [a voter’s] influence on the political process”); id., at 165 (Powell, J., concurring) (“Unconstitutional gerrymandering” occurs when “the boundaries of the voting districts have been distorted deliberately” to deprive voters of “an equal opportunity to participate in the State’s legislative processes”). Once again, the majority never disagrees; it appears to accept the “principle that each person must have an equal say in the election of representatives.” Ante, at 20. And indeed, without this settled and shared understanding that cases like these inflict constitutional injury, the question of whether there are judicially manageable standards for resolving them would never come up. II So the only way to understand the majority’s opinion is as follows: In the face of grievous harm to democratic