NYT: Legislative power brokers across the country have long designed district lines in back-room deals that entrenched their control for years, if not decades. But now, Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are carrying out a power grab in an unusually … Continue reading
Category Archives: redistricting
So predicts key Court watcher John Elwood: My instinct is Court won't act before 1/4 conference. I suspect they'll reschedule until late January, so argument would come next fall. I doubt John Roberts wants to revisit an issue that flummoxed … Continue reading
Column in the Capital Gazette. … Continue reading
NYT: The continuing legislative maneuvers in Michigan and Wisconsin are part of a broader war for power in the Midwest, a politically prized region for both parties — but especially for Republicans, who are trying to dilute Democratic control ahead … Continue reading
With no noted dissent, the Supreme Court has turned down a cert. petition in the Zimmerman campaign finance case from Austin Texas. I flagged this case (along with a Montana case that the Court will consider taking up in January) … Continue reading
Ariane de Vogue for CNN. … Continue reading
New post at State of Elections. … Continue reading
Lyle Denniston: Arguing that a state should not have to re-draw its congressional districts twice in a short time span, Maryland officials asked the Supreme Court on Monday to rule that the existing map can be used again in 2020 … Continue reading
AP: Other states have created independent commissions and required bipartisan votes to redraw legislative and congressional districts. Missouri will be the first to rely on a new mathematical formula to try to engineer “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness” in its state … Continue reading
AP: A three-judge panel has cleared the way for a trial that could upset districts in the Michigan Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation. The panel says Democrats so far have presented sufficient evidence that districts were shaped by Republican … Continue reading
AP: Wisconsin Democrats scored a huge win when Tony Evers captured the governor’s office last month. But an even bigger fight is looming as Republican lawmakers prepare to redraw legislative boundaries, stirring fears among Democrats that their rivals could take … Continue reading
I think this new draft is going to be important to the field. Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Evaluations of Partisan Fairness in District-Based Democracies Citation: Jonathan N. Katz, Gary King, and Elizabeth Rosenblatt. Working Paper. “Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Evaluations … Continue reading
Politico: Democratic legislative leaders are preparing to diminish the power of their state party chairman as well as Republicans — if they can get New Jersey voters to go along with them. Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Los Angeles residents did not adequately show race was the main factor in the last round of redistricting or that the districts were redrawn to benefit the LA City Council’s current president, a Ninth Circuit panel held … Continue reading
Plain Dealer: As Ohio Republicans won the race for every statewide executive job from the governor on down this year, something different happened in lower-profile races. The Democrats ran much more competitive in total votes for the 116 Ohio House … Continue reading
Mark Joseph Stern: North Carolina Republicans have spent the last eight years ruthlessly undermining democracy in their state. The key to their extraordinary success is a series of partisan gerrymanders that dilute the power of Democrats’ vote, allowing the GOP … Continue reading
Here’s a guest post from Mike Parsons: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear Va. House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill (“Bethune-Hill II”) and directed the parties to brief whether Appellants have standing. This racial gerrymandering case challenging 12 Virginia House … Continue reading
Release: Today, Common Cause, the North Carolina Democratic Party, and a group of individual North Carolina voters are suing the state of North Carolina over the partisan gerrymandering of legislative maps for both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly. … Continue reading
From today’s order list: APPEAL — JURISDICTION POSTPONED 18-281 VA HOUSE OF DELEGATES, ET AL. V. GOLDEN BETHUNE-HILL, ET AL. Further consideration of the question of jurisdiction is postponed to the hearing of the case on the merits. In addition … Continue reading
Charles Lane WaPo column. Even though I’ve been ambivalent about whether courts should intervene to stop gerrymanders on federal constitutional grounds, I find very unpersuasive the argument that a wave election shows that federal intervention is unnecessary. … Continue reading
This idea seems to be gaining some traction in a way that it hasn’t before. … Continue reading
William Adler and Stuart Thompson NYT oped, with some very informative graphics. … Continue reading
The judges considered two First Amendment-based theories: all three joined in one of the theories, and two in the other. This will go on direct appeal to the Supreme Court, in a case with an opinion written by a well … Continue reading
Hi, all. Justin here. On Tuesday, voters in Colorado, Michigan, and maybe Utah (it’s still too close to call) approved ballot initatives changing the process for drawing state legislative and congressional lines, and voters in Missouri approved an initiative changing the process for … Continue reading
Read it here. … Continue reading
You can find the document here. I believe it is almost certain the Court will set the case for argument (and I think chances of an affirmance are low with Justice Kavanaugh now on the Court, but we will see). … Continue reading
SCOTUS declines this a.m. to hear Pennsylvania Republicans’ appeal of state court ruling ordering new congressional map. https://t.co/6txxfNrGvz #fairmaps 1/ pic.twitter.com/Nd8gOAZKZx — Michael Li (@mcpli) October 29, 2018 I expect this issue to be back before the Supreme Court soon … Continue reading
I’m often asked why it makes any difference whether election districts keep towns and counties together, or are reasonably compact. This amusing op-ed, from the Democratic candidate running for a New York Assembly district that contains pieces of seven counties … Continue reading
Detroit News: A conservative group with ties to the powerful DeVos family of West Michigan is pumping at least $1.2 million into an effort to fight a ballot measure for an independent redistricting commission. The spending by the Michigan Freedom … Continue reading
I have written this piece for the Harvard Law Review Blog. It begins: These are perilous times even for those who think that federal courts have no business messing with how state legislatures draw lines for legislative and congressional districts … Continue reading
Looking forward to watching this Release: “SOCAL CONNECTED, KCET’s Emmy® and Peabody® award-winning news documentary series for Southern Californians will premiere a new episode titled “Divide and Conquer” on Tues., Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. PT on KCET in Southern California. … Continue reading
Kimberly Robinson for Bloomberg Law. … Continue reading
Lyle Denniston: Reopening a deeply divisive controversy that has troubled the Supreme Court for 32 years, four state legislators from North Carolina have urged the Justices to bar all constitutional challenges to partisan gerrymandering. The decades-long search for a way … Continue reading
Detroit News: Republican mapmakers who drew Michigan’s current political districts were pressured to appease lawmakers and made changes to help gain legislative approval, according to documents and depositions in a federal lawsuit. The documents show mapmakers in 2011 gave top … Continue reading
Too funny: … Continue reading
Oped in the News & Record. … Continue reading
Judge Lynn Adelman has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming University of Memphis Law Review). Here is the abstract: In this paper, to be presented at an election law forum sponsored by the Memphis Law Review and published in a … Continue reading
I’m very much looking forward to participating in this Federal Bar Association lunchtime event in Riverside, California with Doug Johnson on October 23. Link with RSVP info. … Continue reading
Unusual story in the Detroit News: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Clement said she faced “bullying and intimidation” while deliberating a case that paved the way for a redistricting proposal to go on the November ballot. Clement, a Gov. Rick Snyder appointee … Continue reading
WaPo: “With a court-ordered deadline looming Oct. 30, Republican leaders of the House of Delegates on Tuesday backed a ‘politically neutral, race-blind remedial redistricting map’ that they said would satisfy the court while causing minimal disruption to existing legislative district … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Democrats are renewing their lawsuit over election maps that have helped Republicans maintain big margins in the state Assembly. An expanded group of Democratic voters filed a new version of their long-running lawsuit on Friday, three months after … Continue reading
You can find the order here. Neither Legislative Defendants’ Motion nor their supporting brief explicitly addresses any of the well-established factors set forth in Hilton. Normally, that failure alone would be fatal to Legislative Defendants’ Motion. See, e.g., Hickman-Bey v. … Continue reading
Reid Wilson: Nonpartisan redistricting proponents are turning to midterm election referendums in key states where legislative leaders have signaled no desire to give up their authority on drawing political boundaries. Voters in four states — Michigan, Missouri, Colorado and Utah … Continue reading
Calling Michael McDonald: looks like another redistricting precinct error, but this time it may force a new vote. (The article discusses a bunch of issues beyond the precinct error, few of which seem related to the race in question.) … Continue reading
The Hill runs down the measures on the ballot this fall. … Continue reading
Here come the field generals for the 2021 redistricting wars. … Continue reading
Hansi Lo Wang, who’s been all over this issue, chronicles the memory loss. … Continue reading
Guy-Uriel Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer have a new piece forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, on partisan gerrymandering and justiciability: This paper examines the Court’s decision in Gil v. Whitford. It advances two claims. First, it provides a comprehensive account … Continue reading