Category Archives: redistricting

“Florida redistricting lawsuit overturns DeSantis map, empowers Black voters”

September 2, 2023, 2:36 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

The Tributary: A state judge struck down North Florida’s congressional districts Saturday, rebuffing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ open defiance of anti-gerrymandering protections, finding the governor’s map illegally reduced Black voters’ electoral power. DeSantis had wagered the state’s Fair Districts Amendment… Continue reading

“Federal judge to decide whether new Jefferson County Commission district lines are racially unfair”

September 1, 2023, 3:06 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

AL.com: The future leadership of Alabama’s largest county is in the hands of a federal judge who will decide whether Jefferson County commissioners gerrymandered district lines to dwarf the voting rights of Black residents. In a five-hour hearing Wednesday Judge… Continue reading

“Dems tap Obama for crucial redistricting push”

August 26, 2023, 3:52 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Politico: The House majority next year could be determined in a state-by-state fight over redistricting that’s taking place right now. And Democrats are calling in the big guns. Former President Barack Obama hosted a fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting… Continue reading

Cal. Supreme Court decides CVRA case

August 24, 2023, 12:19 pmalternative voting systems, redistrictingJustin Levitt

The California Supreme Court is out with an important opinion today in Pico Neighborhood Ass’n v. City of Santa Monica: a ruling on the California Voting Rights Act and some of the ways in which it’s distinct from (and… Continue reading

“New district lines will scramble key New York House races”

August 21, 2023, 7:36 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Politico: Candidates are eager to run in competitive House seats in New York next year. There’s just one problem: They have no clear sense of where to campaign. The interminable legal fight over redistricting in New York will likely leave… Continue reading

Wisconsin: “Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley rips Janet Protasiewicz for not recusing on redistricting case”

August 18, 2023, 5:38 pmjudicial elections, redistrictingRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: The outcome of a challenge to Wisconsin’s legislative maps is “predetermined” by the court’s liberal majority, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in a dissent issued Tuesday. The court is considering taking up lawsuits filed directly with it, bypassing… Continue reading

Wisconsin: “Vos says lawmakers may consider impeachment if Protasiewicz doesn’t recuse from redistricting cases”

August 13, 2023, 6:45 pmconflict of interest laws, judicial elections, redistrictingRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: If Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz does not recuse from lawsuits challenging the state’s legislative boundaries, Republicans who control the state Legislature might consider impeachment proceedings, the Assembly’s top Republican said Friday. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a… Continue reading

“Miami groups try to overturn court ruling that kept ‘gerrymandered’ map in effect”

August 6, 2023, 7:52 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Miami Herald: Two days after a federal appeals court blocked a new city of Miami voting map drawn by community groups from being used in the November elections, those Miami community groups have challenged that decision. On Sunday, American Civil… Continue reading

“Lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s legislative maps filed at the state Supreme Court”

August 3, 2023, 4:03 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: A lawsuit aimed at rewriting Wisconsin’s legislative maps to favor Republicans less was filed Wednesday at the state Supreme Court, a day after the state’s highest court flipped to liberal control for the first time in years.… Continue reading

“Status of Partisan Gerrymandering Litigation in State Courts”

July 31, 2023, 3:58 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

New from the Brennan Center.

“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

“Alabama Is Defying the Supreme Court on Voting Rights”

July 28, 2023, 8:59 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Atlantic: “In an echo of mid-century southern defiance of school desegregation, the Yellowhammer State’s Republican-controlled legislature defied the conservative-dominated Court’s directive to redraw its congressional map with an additional Black-majority district.”

“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

“How Alabama could get away with defying the Supreme Court”

July 26, 2023, 9:55 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Ian Millhiser in Vox, concluding that the Alabama legislature’s “defiance [of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Allen v. Milligan] is unlikely to be tolerated by the courts,” but that “there is a risk that the Supreme Court will… Continue reading