Category Archives: redistricting

Crum: “Questioning Shaw in Callais”

March 21, 2025, 6:58 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

The following is a guest post from Professor Travis Crum: On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Louisiana v. Callais, a Shaw challenge to Louisiana’s congressional redistricting plan. This is the first time the Court will… Continue reading

Are at-large v. single member district elections affecting how Texas school boards behave?

March 20, 2025, 5:35 amalternative voting systems, redistrictingDerek Muller

Interesting piece at the Texas Tribune.

“Assessing Gerrymandering after the 2020 Census”

March 12, 2025, 7:31 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Daniel Magleby and Michael D. McDonald have written this draft for ELJ. Here is the abstract: The Roberts Court has turned over efforts to limit gerrymanders to politics and willing state courts. Scholars have proposed several methods for evaluating… Continue reading

“Malapportionment: A Murder Mystery”

March 10, 2025, 9:55 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Daniel Wodak has posted this paper (forthcoming, Northwestern University Law Review). Here is the abstract: Malapportionment—electoral districts with divergent ratios of people to representation—was ruled to be unconstitutional in a widely venerated series of cases before the Warren Court. Those… Continue reading

“Drawing Representation from Taxation: A Tax-Based Approach to Redistricting”

March 6, 2025, 6:40 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Jacob Hooper has written this student note for the George Mason Law Review. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court’s 2023 Allen v. Milligan decision upheld Thornburg v. Gingles from 1986. Gingles established preconditions creating majority-minority districts to protect a… Continue reading

“The Death of Competition in American Elections”

February 23, 2025, 4:32 pmpolitical parties, political polarization, redistrictingRick Hasen

NYT: President Trump’s return to Washington has tested the bounds of presidential power and set off alarms among Democrats, historians and legal scholars who are warning that the country’s democratic order is under threat. But a close review of… Continue reading

Supreme Court Rejects Racial Gerrymandering Claim Out of North Dakota Redistricting

January 13, 2025, 7:12 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Michael Li explains:

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Redistricting Commissions in the 2021 Cycle”

January 13, 2025, 6:43 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Sam Wang and Zacharia Sippy have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy). here is the abstract: In the last decade, redistricting commissions have proliferated across the United States as a means of… Continue reading

“Analysis: How redistricting helped Nevada Democrats — but not enough to gain supermajority”

December 1, 2024, 6:35 pmredistrictingJustin Levitt

The Nevada Independent goes deep on redistricting in Nevada — one of only four states, I believe, with no constraints in state law on how the lines are drawn.

“Ohioans Reject Redistricting Reform, Protecting GOP Gerrymanders”

November 7, 2024, 3:04 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Bolts: Ohioans on Tuesday rejected Issue 1, a ballot measure that would have created a new independent redistricting commission and stripped elected politicians of their power to draw congressional and legislative districts. The result is a blow to the democracy… Continue reading

Ranked Choice Voting Measures on Track to Lose in at Least Some States; Redistricting Reform Goes Down in Ohio

November 5, 2024, 9:58 pmalternative voting systems, redistrictingRick Hasen

Nick Stephanopoulos: Of the major democracy-related initiatives (not including AK & NV, where votes aren't in yet), only Maine's limit on Super PAC donations looks to be passing now. RCV is going down in AZ, CO, and ID, and… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court Will Hear Louisiana Racial Gerrymandering Case, with Implications for Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act

November 4, 2024, 6:58 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The Court noted probable jurisdiction both the state’s and the LDF’s appeals. The cases are consolidated for argument. It will present another opportunity for the Court to address the “race or party” problem endemic in these racial gerrymandering cases.

“Anti-Gerrymandering Groups Warn That Ohio’s Ballot Language Is Misleading Voters”

October 28, 2024, 12:51 pmchicanery, direct democracy, redistrictingRick Hasen

New at Bolts.

“How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House”

September 24, 2024, 8:50 amredistrictingRick Hasen

New Brennan Center analysis: “Some of this decade’s congressional maps are models of fairness; others are decidedly not. Both parties engaged in gerrymandering after the 2020 census, but, overall, the bias in this cycle’s maps strongly favors Republicans due primarily… Continue reading