Category Archives: redistricting

“Maryland Democrats’ faux redistricting reform”

May 14, 2017, 4:21 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

WaPo editorial: WITH ITS preposterously gerrymandered congressional voting districts, Maryland is an outstanding example of why states need nonpartisan redistricting reform. But the redistricting bill that emerged this year in Annapolis — in equal parts cynical and ludicrous — makes… Continue reading

Harvard Law Review Write-Up of Whitford v. Gill

May 10, 2017, 7:49 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Read it here.

“U.S. Census director resigns amid turmoil over funding of 2020 count”

May 9, 2017, 8:23 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

WaPo: The director of the U.S. Census Bureau is resigning, leaving the agency leaderless at a time when it faces a crisis over funding for the 2020 decennial count of the U.S. population and beyond. John H. Thompson, who has… Continue reading

WI Partisan Gerrymandering Plaintiffs File #SCOTUS Motion to Affirm

May 8, 2017, 4:32 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

With Paul Smith (now of the Campaign Legal Center) as Counsel of Record.

“Can math stop partisan gerrymandering?”

May 7, 2017, 11:53 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Sam Wang and Brian Remlinger LAT oped: Setting aside the Monte Carlo analysis, the most straightforward way to determine if gerrymandering has gone too far is to ask whether one side’s wins were exceptionally lopsided compared with the other. In… Continue reading

What To Look for When the Supreme Court Decides the North Carolina Redistricting Case

May 5, 2017, 11:57 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRichard Pildes

The Court has already decided one major racial redistricting case this Term, Bethune-Hill, from Virginia. The other major racial redistricting case, Cooper v. Harris, from North Carolina, is now one of three cases outstanding the longest since argument. Cooper involves… Continue reading

Expedited Texas Redistricting Trial on Remaining Voting Rights Claims July 10 Before Three Judge Court

May 1, 2017, 4:36 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

This extremely long running case will be coming to a conclusion with a 5 day trial on July 10, followed by an inevitable appeal directly to the Supreme court.

“Ahead of 2018, trial likely looms in Texas political map battle”

April 27, 2017, 9:42 pmredistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Texas Tribune: As the 2018 election cycle nears, it appears Texas and its legal foes are headed for a trial — yet again — over what the state’s House and congressional boundaries will look like, and it will likely come… Continue reading

“Recent rulings that Texas’ voting laws discriminate put pressure on the state, but the road ahead is long”

April 26, 2017, 8:56 pmredistricting, The Voting Wars, voter id, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The Dallas Morning News reports.

“Redistricting by Formula: An Ohio Reform Experiment”

April 26, 2017, 8:57 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Micah Altman and Michael McDonald in American Politics Research: In the last decade, Ohio reformers advocated redistricting by formula: selecting the redistricting plan that scores best on a predefined objective scoring function that combines prima facie neutral criteria with political… Continue reading

Judicial Watch, Which Backs Maryland Partisan Gerrymandering Claim, Objects to “Efficiency Gap” in WI Redistricting Litigation

April 25, 2017, 1:41 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Amicus brief.

Paul Clement Brief on WI Redistricting Calls Court Policing of Gerrymandering “Dangerously Wrong”

April 24, 2017, 8:31 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

AP: Attorneys for the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to uphold GOP-drawn legislative boundaries, saying a ruling that found them to be unconstitutional was “dangerously” wrong. The filing comes in support of separate and similar… Continue reading

“Lawsuit: 2015 Redistricting Violated Black Voters’ Rights”

April 24, 2017, 1:34 pmredistricting, voting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

AP: Georgia lawmakers violated federal voting rights law by moving black voters out and white voters in to two state House districts in 2015, according to a lawsuit filed Monday that calls the mid-decade redistricting an effort to protect white… Continue reading