Category Archives: Voting Rights Act

“Alabama Asks Supreme Court to Revisit Dispute Over Congressional Map”

September 12, 2023, 7:44 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

NYT: Alabama filed an emergency application in the Supreme Court on Monday evening, asking the justices to keep in place for now a congressional map that a lower court had found failed to comply with orders to establish a second… Continue reading

“Exclusive: How the Supreme Court’s conservatives rebuffed Alabama”

September 8, 2023, 11:05 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Must-read Joan Biskupic report for CNN: When the Supreme Court considered the challenge to an Alabama congressional map that shortchanged the state’s Black voters, liberal justices expected the conservative majority to side with Alabama – if not gut the 1965… Continue reading

Breaking: Unanimous 3-Judge Federal Court Holds Alabama Defied Supreme Court in Allen v. Milligan, Must Draw Another Minority Opportunity Congressional District

September 5, 2023, 7:33 amSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the unanimous, 217-page opinion at this link. The Court castigated Alabama both for its failure to obey the Supreme Court’s order and for its delay: We have reached these conclusions only after conducting an exhaustive analysis of… Continue reading

Parsons, Penrose, and Carroll: “Pico & Proportional Ranked Choice Voting”

August 31, 2023, 6:56 amalternative voting systems, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from G. Michael Parsons (Senior Legal Fellow, FairVote), Drew Penrose (Policy Consultant, FairVote), and Terrance Carroll (Senior Fellow for Voting and Democracy, FairVote): The California Supreme Court’s decision in Pico Neighborhood Association v. City … Continue reading

Unanimous California Supreme Court in Santa Monica Case Adopts Compromise Reading of California Voting Rights Act, Remands Case to Appeals Court for Further Proceedings

August 24, 2023, 12:29 pmVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

You can find the opinion here. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that proof of racially polarized voting in an at-large system was enough to show a violation of the CVRA. The court also rejected the City of Santa Monica’s… Continue reading

Announcing the Fall Webinar Series for UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project (Each event free but registration required)

August 23, 2023, 8:24 amelection subversion risk, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Very excited to announce this lineup for the Safeguarding Democracy Project’s Fall 2023 webinar series (each event free but registration required): September 5, 12pm-1pm – The Trump Indictments, the 2024 Elections, and Public Peace Webinar Ruth Ben-Ghiat (NYU) Benjamin … Continue reading

Alabama Attorney General Praises State Legislature for Defying the Supreme Court in Not Drawing District Required by the Voting Rights Act

August 9, 2023, 5:52 pmSupreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Alabama Daily News: The Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a lower state court that ordered Alabama lawmakers to adopt a new map that either created two majority-Black districts, or “something quite close” to it. Instead, the Legislature approved a… Continue reading

Brandon Johnson: “Election Aggrandizement”

August 2, 2023, 3:31 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from Brandon Johnson, who begins as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska on August 14: The Supreme Court received praise for two election law decisions issued in the waning weeks of its… Continue reading

“Plaintiffs in high-profile redistricting case urge judges to toss out Alabama’s controversial congressional map”

July 30, 2023, 5:37 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

CNN: In a late-night court filing Friday, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and multiple attorneys asked a three-judge panel to direct an official to devise a new map that complies with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The… Continue reading

“A Black prosecutor was elected in Georgia – so white Republicans made their own district”

July 28, 2023, 5:11 amVoting Rights ActDan Tokaji

The Guardian reports on a different kind of circuit split: Since 1870, the Augusta judicial circuit has been home to the criminal justice system of a three-county area on Georgia’s border with South Carolina. In that time, no African American… Continue reading

“Inside Alabama Republicans’ plan to overturn Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act”

July 28, 2023, 4:43 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Alabama Political Reporter: The decision by Alabama Republican legislators to seemingly defy a Supreme Court directive to redraw congressional voting maps with a second majority-Black district was part of a larger strategy intended to force the high court to… Continue reading

“Texas trial to be first major test of Voting Rights Act since Supreme Court decision”

July 26, 2023, 5:24 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

NPR’s Morning Edition: “A voting map drawn by Republicans for one Texas county [Galveston] eliminated the only precinct represented by a non-white Democrat. Now, that map is being challenged.”

“Court to check if new congressional map in Alabama weakens the power of Black voters”

July 24, 2023, 9:37 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

From NPR’s Morning Edition: “The legal fight continues over Alabama’s congressional map. A federal court is set to check if a new map approved by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature weakens the power of Black voters.” More on this story… Continue reading

“The fight over Alabama’s congressional redistricting now shifts back to federal court”

July 24, 2023, 5:25 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

AP: Alabama lawmakers on Friday approved new district lines six weeks after the surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a lower court ruling that the state’s previous map — with one Black-majority district out of seven in a state… Continue reading

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