Category Archives: redistricting

Insightful Preview of Upcoming VRA Case

September 26, 2022, 10:48 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActTabatha Abu El-Haj

Linda Greenhouse has written, John Roberts’s Long Game. Is this the End of the Voting Rights Act?–an insightful preview of Merrill v. Milligan, which will be argued on October 4. The lengthy Atlantic article cuts straight to the point:… Continue reading

“Newly gerrymandered districts might hurt Democrats less than you think”

September 22, 2022, 4:54 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Marion Campisi, Tommy Ratliff, Stephanie Somersille and Ellen Veomett for WaPo’s Monkey Cage: This November, members of Congress will be running in new districts based on the 2020 Census data. So how might the new district maps… Continue reading

“Anti-Gerrymandering Reforms Had Mixed Results”

September 19, 2022, 1:47 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

New analysis from Michael Li of the Brennan Center.

“Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor says she’ll join anti-gerrymandering effort after leaving office”

September 16, 2022, 6:09 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Cleveland.com: Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said Thursday she plans to campaign to try to end gerrymandering in Ohio once she leaves office at the end of the year.O’Connor commented Thursday on her future plans during her… Continue reading

Missouri Files Bonkers Amicus Brief in Moore v. Harper Case Arguing That Not Even Congress Can Limit a State Legislature’s Partisan Gerrymandering

September 6, 2022, 8:53 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The main dispute in Moore v. Harper, currently pending before the Supreme Court, is whether state legislatures may be constrained by other state actors (such as state courts applying state constitutional provisions protecting voting rights) when they pass rules… Continue reading

“New congressional maps dilute Black power, critics say”

September 5, 2022, 6:24 pmredistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

AP reports.

“All pain, whose gain? The surprising implications of a new legal theory for redistricting”

August 31, 2022, 1:17 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Sam Wang: Lots of pixels have been spilled on a legal theory once considered fringe, the Independent State Legislature doctrine. This theory threatens to wreak havoc with centuries of election law. Two upcoming Supreme Court redistricting cases cite this… Continue reading

“Can computer simulations help fix democracy?”

August 23, 2022, 7:10 amredistrictingRick Hasen

WaPo: After the release of the 2020 Census, legislatures across the country redrew their states’ congressional district maps, just like they do every decade. And, just like every decade, aggrieved citizens sued them for gerrymandering — the process whereby… Continue reading

“Activists in Florida say Black voters have seen their political power curtailed”

August 23, 2022, 7:03 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

NPR: A combination of new election laws and congressional redistricting has made it harder for Black communities in Florida to organize and vote, activists say.Florida, which concludes its primary elections on Tuesday, is among various Republican-led states that have… Continue reading

“American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic: The partisan redistricting tactics of cracking and packing aren’t merely flaws in the system — they are the system.”'”

August 15, 2022, 7:45 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Louis Menand in the New Yorker.

Must Read Michael Wines in the NYT: “Maps in Four States Were Ruled Illegal Gerrymanders. They’re Being Used Anyway.”

August 8, 2022, 7:54 amredistrictingRick Hasen

NYT: Since January, judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republican legislators illegally drew those states’ congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did. In years past,… Continue reading

Cert. Petition Asserts Racial Gerrymandering of PA State Legislative Districts

July 15, 2022, 5:04 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Uncategorized, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Here’s the question presented by the cert petition in Benninghoff v. 2021 Legislative Reapportionment Commission, brought by Pennsylvania’s Republican House Majority Leader: Pennsylvania’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission admittedly made extensive use of race in constructing up to 14 state legislative… Continue reading

CLC on “The Supreme Court’s Role in the Degradation of U.S. Democracy”

July 13, 2022, 8:07 amcampaign finance, redistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

From the first page of the hard-hitting report, available here, that Campaign Legal Center released today: The time has come to talk about what the Supreme Court is doing to American democracy. For more than half a century—roughly during… Continue reading

2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index

July 13, 2022, 7:27 amredistrictingDan Tokaji

Available here, with maps for each congressional district and state. “Now that all 50 states have finalized new lines for the 2022 elections, the Cook Political Report is pleased to introduce the 25th Anniversary edition of the Cook… Continue reading