Category Archives: redistricting

“Reporting Gerrymanders”

April 29, 2025, 1:10 pmelection law "humor", redistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Ross Davies has written this fun article for The Green Bag. Here is the abstract: Over the past 80 years or so, maps have appeared in many (but not all) of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions involving gerrymanders. This… Continue reading

MALDEF Files Section 2 Suit Challenging Stanislaus County, California, redistricting plans

April 24, 2025, 6:58 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActTravis Crum

The complaint is here. The press release is here: MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) filed a challenge to the county’s 2021 Board of Supervisors and Board of Education redistricting plans on behalf of four voters… Continue reading

Pennsylvania: “DOJ drops lawsuit against City of Hazleton”

April 23, 2025, 5:04 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActTravis Crum

Another Section 2 case dropped by the Trump Administration. The Standard Speaker reports: The U.S. Justice Department dropped a lawsuit Monday to stop the City of Hazleton from electing council members at-large, a change that the lawsuit said would give… Continue reading

My New One at Slate: “What Elon Musk Won in Wisconsin”

April 3, 2025, 1:12 pmcampaign finance, judicial elections, Plutocrats United, redistrictingRick Hasen

I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Democrats and progressives rightly celebrated the victory of liberal Susan Crawford over Trump-endorsed Brad Schimel for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. But the left is prematurely gloating over how… Continue reading

“Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, Despite Musk’s Millions”

April 2, 2025, 7:03 amjudicial elections, Plutocrats United, redistrictingRick Hasen

NYT: A liberal candidate for a pivotal seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court overcame $25 million in spending from Elon Musk and defeated her conservative opponent on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, in a contest that became a kind of… Continue reading

“Elon Musk Revealed Why He’s Spending Millions to Flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court; It’s all about preserving gerrymandered districts that lock in Republican power.”

March 25, 2025, 10:12 amjudicial elections, Plutocrats United, redistrictingRick Hasen

Ari Berman in Mother Jones: On March 22, Elon Musk hosted conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel and US Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) for a discussion on X about the importance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April… Continue reading

Oral argument preview in Louisiana v. Callais

March 23, 2025, 7:00 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

Here’s SCOTUSblog on Louisiana v. Callais (consolidated with Robinson v. Louisiana), an appeal from a three-judge panel on a racial gerrymandering claim. Argument will take place 10 am ET Monday, March 24. Some oral argument previews: CBS News The Center … Continue reading

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