Category Archives: redistricting

“Rucho v. Common Cause—A Critique”

August 24, 2021, 3:37 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Emmet Bondurant has written this article for the Emory Law Journal. Here is the abstract: Once upon a time, the right to vote was held by the Supreme Court to be among the most precious of the rights protected by… Continue reading

Pa. ends ‘prison gerrymandering’ with closely divided committee vote

August 24, 2021, 12:10 pmfelon voting, redistricting, votingTabatha Abu El-Haj

From WHYY in Philadelphia: “The commission in charge of redrawing Pennsylvania’s House and Senate maps has voted 3-2 to make a major change to the redistricting process: It will no longer count many state prisoners as residents of the districts… Continue reading

“Conservatives file redistricting lawsuit in Wisconsin”

August 23, 2021, 2:00 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

AP: A conservative group filed a redistricting lawsuit with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday, an action that comes after Democrats filed their own legal challenge in federal court less than two weeks ago.A third lawsuit on behalf of voting… Continue reading

“Cognizability as the Neglected Fourth C of Good Government Redistricting Criteria”

August 22, 2021, 8:02 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Bernie Grofman: Everyone who has ever studied redistricting is aware of the three Cs of what are commonly referred to as good government redistricting criteria, namely contiguity, communities of interest, and compactness. But there is a much neglected fourth… Continue reading

Reminder: ELB Podcast, Episode 3.1: “Nate Persily: A Redistricting Season Like No Other”

August 22, 2021, 9:32 amELB Podcast, redistrictingRick Hasen

Have a listen on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you like what you hear, please like the podcast and leave a review on one of these services.

“Wisconsin redistricting case will be heard by panel that includes two judges nominated by Obama, one by Trump”

August 19, 2021, 8:11 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: A challenge to Wisconsin’s congressional and legislative districts will be heard by an appeals judge nominated by President Donald Trump and two trial judges nominated by President Barack Obama.The panel will decide whether to set a timeline for… Continue reading

ELB Podcast, Episode 3.1: “Nate Persily: A Redistricting Season Like No Other”

August 18, 2021, 6:30 pmELB Podcast, redistrictingRick Hasen

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Season 3 of the ELB Podcast. The first season was 2015-16 and the second on in 2017-18. You can find all the old episodes at this link. And you can subscribe on… Continue reading

What new census data tell us about Pa.’s politics: More influence for Philly and Latinos, and a shrinking white vote

August 16, 2021, 11:11 amprimaries, redistricting, votingTabatha Abu El-Haj

From Jonathan Tamari and Jonathan Lai at the Philadelphia Inquirer: An interesting in-depth analysis of the potential political consequences of demographic changes in Pennsylvania—sadly, behind a firewall. Two key points beyond the headline: “Philadelphia and suburban Bucks, Chester, Delaware,… Continue reading

“The Geography of Law: Understanding the Origin of State and Federal Redistricting Cases”

August 15, 2021, 10:15 amredistrictingDerek Muller

A timely piece in Political Research Quarterly: Knowing where legal complaints arise can tell us something about them and reveal clues about their conditions of origin. In this paper, we examine the geographic origins of litigation challenging the boundaries… Continue reading

“Two-Party Structural Countermandering”

August 15, 2021, 6:15 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Draft from Benjamin Plener Cover forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review now up on SSRN: The popular narrative surrounding gerrymandering frames it as a performative phenomenon—achieved through the intentional manipulations of malevolent partisan actors. Efforts to curb partisan gerrymandering—which… Continue reading

“Colorado redistricting panel votes to end ‘prison gerrymandering’ in new legislative maps”

August 13, 2021, 4:29 pmredistrictingDerek Muller

Colorado Newsline: For the first time in the state’s history, Colorado will change how it counts incarcerated people when drawing up new legislative maps, a redistricting panel confirmed in a vote on Friday.Historically, prison inmates have been counted by… Continue reading

“Democrats File First Wisconsin 2021 Redistricting Lawsuit”

August 13, 2021, 10:39 amredistrictingDerek Muller

Wisconsin Public Radio: Democrats filed the first Wisconsin lawsuit related to the 2021 redistricting process on Friday, arguing a federal court should step in to draw the state’s next set of political maps because state lawmakers and Gov. Tony… Continue reading

Bernie Grofman: “Can Partisan Fairness Be Melded with Good Government Criteria? John Nagle’s Intriguing Solution”

August 13, 2021, 7:52 amredistrictingRick Hasen

The following is a guest post from my UCI colleague Bernie Grofman: There are many issues of tradeoffs when considering criteria for redistricting. For example, Nick Stephanopoulos in an August 11, 2021 posting to this blog asserted: “Don’t Conflate… Continue reading

Colorado Redistricting & Competitiveness

August 10, 2021, 7:26 amredistrictingNed Foley

I’m circling back to a post that Rick Pildes did on the role of competitiveness in the drawing of new congressional maps for Colorado. Here’s one more point along the same lines, based on the numerical analysis that Election Law… Continue reading