Stateline reports. … Continue reading
Category Archives: redistricting
Announcement: he California Citizens Redistricting Commission (Commission) seeks a Chief Counsel with demonstrated experience and expertise in implementation and enforcement of Administrative or Constitutional law, combined with the background and knowledge to support the Commission’s redistricting mission. The applicant should … Continue reading
Tom Edsall NYT column on the upcoming round of redistricting and concerns about voter suppression: All of the above suggests that continued Democratic control of the House in 2022 and 2024 may hinge on passage of HR1 — the For the … Continue reading
Dan Morain WaPo oped. … Continue reading
Politico: Days after the 2020 election, House Democrats convened to address some of the party’s most surprising losses, and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Cheri Bustos name-checked one in particular: Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a freshman from South Florida.Party data missed … Continue reading
Nicholas Riccardi for AP: In the name of fairness, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his Democratic allies once welcomed the creation of a nonpartisan redistricting commission that would redraw congressional maps free of political influence and avoid contorted gerrymandering.But … Continue reading
Brennan Center: The next round of redistricting in 2021 and 2022 is likely to be the most challenging in recent history and particularly detrimental to communities of color, according to a report by Michael C. Li, one of the nation’s leading … Continue reading
Mike Parsons for the Harvard Law Review Blog. … Continue reading
NYT: With the election over and Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, officials in both parties are bracing for a bruising new battle with a different balance of power: the redrawing of congressional maps, … Continue reading
NPR reports: Disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and last-minute changes by the Trump administration, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Wednesday that the release of the first results of the 2020 census will likely be delayed by four months.The latest state … Continue reading
Spotlight PA: A state House panel narrowly advanced a measure Wednesday aimed at giving the Republican-controlled legislature the power to draw districts for electing appellate court judges in Pennsylvania, a major shift away from the current statewide contests.The majority party … Continue reading
The 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission is seeking to retain Voting Rights Act Counsel and also Litigation Counsel. The two Requests for Information are at https://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/job_opportunities/. Interested individuals or firms with relevant experience are encouraged to apply to one or both. … Continue reading
NPR reports. … Continue reading
The following is a symposium contribution from Nick Stephanapoulos (Harvard): The following are a number of tentative thoughts about what the 2020 election means for redistricting—for both the plans currently in effect and the ones soon to be enacted. 1. At the … Continue reading
Jeff Zalesin at Yale Law Journal Forum. Abstract: The Constitution requires legislative redistricting plans to have approximately equal populations in each district. But no one knows exactly how many people live in any district, because census data are never fully … Continue reading
Science News reports. … Continue reading
Links to the Legal & Policy Analyst posting and the Senior Legal Strategist posting. … Continue reading
Tom Edsall NYT column. … Continue reading
City & State reports. … Continue reading
WRAL: A Republican lawmaker who played a prominent role in North Carolina’s redistricting process announced Friday that he will not seek reelection this fall and will instead retire from his post at the end of the year.Citing a “great personal … Continue reading
Lee Hamilton, William Cohen and Alton Frye WaPo oped. … Continue reading
At the Lectern: Acting with unusual speed and using an exceptional procedure in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court today issued an opinion extending by four months constitutional and statutory deadlines for the state Citizens Redistricting Commission to submit Congressional, … Continue reading
At the Lectern reports. … Continue reading
Release: A federal district court issued a preliminary order granting People Not Politicians, a broad and diverse coalition to create an independent citizens commission for Oregon, relief to qualify its redistricting reform initiative for the November 2020 election. The judge’s … Continue reading
New report from CAP. … Continue reading
At the Lectern reports. … Continue reading
The Guardian: A little-known Republican group is ramping up millions of dollars in funding from major US corporations such as CitiGroup and Chevron to protect the conservative stronghold on the country.The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) – which held the key … Continue reading
At the Lectern: In yet another case on the Supreme Court’s pandemic docket, California’s Legislature wants the court to order a four-month delay of the deadline for the state Redistricting Commission to submit Congressional, state legislative, and Board of Equalization district … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: The legal fight over the next round of redistricting in Wisconsin kicked off Wednesday, a full year before lawmakers begin drawing election maps.The filing of a request to change state court rules by a former Republican legislative leader reflects … Continue reading
NYT oped by David Daley. … Continue reading
St. Louis Public Radio: The way Missouri draws its state House and Senate districts will be up for referendum later this year after the House Wednesday backed a ballot initiative aimed at repealing the so-called Clean Missouri redistricting system.It’s a … Continue reading
The Nevada Independent reports. … Continue reading
Wow this looks good: Editorial Keith GaddieKirby GoidelKim Gaddie Pages: 7First Published: 27 January 2020 Full textPDFRequest permissions Mini‐symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering Free AccessIntroduction to the Mini Symposium on Partisan Gerrymandering Richard L. Engstrom Pages: 8-9First Published: 27 January 2020 Full textPDFRequest permissions Free … Continue reading
Guy Charles and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer in The Monkey Cage: On April 7, thousands of Wisconsin citizens braved a global pandemic to show up at the polls to vote. Some commentators blamed Republicans in the legislature for forcing voters to choose between their … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: North Carolina legislators can’t remove to federal court a state suit under the state constitution challenging a redistricting plan that they say is gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, the Fourth Circuit said Thursday. … Continue reading
Not at all surprised by this result (which I’ve long been predicting, all the while puzzling over why Republicans did not raise a different argument against the commission as applied to congressional redistricting). But a fascinating majority opinion by Judge … Continue reading
Yunsieg Kim and Jowei Chen have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: What are “traditional” districting criteria? The meaning of that term is critical to curbing abusive districting practices, because states must draw electoral districts according to … Continue reading
The Appeal reports. … Continue reading
I have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Georgetown Law Journal Online). Here is the abstract: The United States Supreme Court’s conservative majority has taken the Court’s election jurisprudence on a pro-partisanship turn which gives political actors freer range to … Continue reading
Detroit News reports. … Continue reading
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. … Continue reading
Richard Engstrom has written this article for Social Science Quarterly. Here is the abstract: Abstract Objective To highlight the extent of the partisan gerrymandering problem in the United States. Methods Bring both original and secondary sources to bear on the … Continue reading
Michael Morley has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since the U.S. Supreme Court held in Rucho v. Common Cause that partisan gerrymandering claims are non-justiciable under the U.S. Constitution, reformers have shifted their focus to pursuing … Continue reading
KC Star: Who should be counted when Missouri’s 197 legislative districts are redrawn: everyone who lives in the state or only citizens old enough to vote?It’s not a question that’s gotten much attention in the more than a year lawmakers … Continue reading
Daniel Nichanian for The Appeal. … Continue reading
Cleveland.com reports. … Continue reading
AP: Republican senators rolled out a plan Tuesday to ask Missouri voters to undo key parts of a nationally unique redistricting model that directs a demographer to draw new legislative districts with “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness” as top criteria.The Republican … Continue reading
AP report, with a rundown of the major states in play. … Continue reading
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on documents from the trove released by Thomas Hofeller’s daughter: “GOP gerrymandering got greedy the last time and bad political climate caused it to unravel,” one of the state-by-state analysis documents in the files said of … Continue reading
The initiative to institute a commission in Nevada was amended and refiled to address a trial judge’s concerns about the ballot description. … Continue reading