Category Archives: redistricting

“Growing number of US states target ‘prison gerrymandering’”

July 18, 2024, 5:44 amredistrictingDan Tokaji

Reuters reports that more than a dozen states and 200 localities have moved to end or change the practice of counting people where they’re incarcerated instead of where they’re from: “The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), which has closely tracked and… Continue reading

“Federal court declines to dismiss Alabama redistricting case after South Carolina ruling”

July 16, 2024, 10:15 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

Alabama Reflector: “The three-judge panel overseeing the legal battle in Allen v. Milligan, which led to the creation of two congressional districts in Alabama with majority or near-majority Black populations, last week rejected a motion from the Alabama Secretary… Continue reading

Utah Supreme Court Rules for League of Women Voters in Case to Reinstate Nonpartisan Redistricting Initiative

July 11, 2024, 3:48 pmdirect democracy, redistrictingDan Tokaji

Here’s the opinion in League of Women Voters v. Utah State Legislature (h/t Ballot Access News). A key excerpt: The novel question before us asks: what happens when Utahns use their initiative power to exercise their “right to alter… Continue reading

Redistricting Reform in Colorado

July 11, 2024, 4:19 amredistrictingDan Tokaji

From Princeton’s Innovations for Successful Societies, this report by Al Vanderlipp. Here’s the abstract: In Colorado, as in most US states, politicians long controlled the process of drawing federal- and state-level legislative districts and manipulated district boundaries to secure political… Continue reading

“This House race reflects how the Supreme Court has narrowed options for Black voters”

July 9, 2024, 9:02 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDan Tokaji

Patrick Marley of WaPo has this piece on South Carolina’s 1st CD. An excerpt: This spring, the Supreme Court signed off on district lines in South Carolina that Republican state lawmakers said they had designed to benefit their party. The… Continue reading

“States were incredibly successful at reallocating incarcerated people to their home addresses in 2020”

June 13, 2024, 7:39 ampolitical equality, redistrictingcensusJustin Levitt

The Prison Gerrymandering Project crunches the numbers, and finds that even with the delayed census data this cycle, most of the states that sought to count incarcerated individuals at their home address rather than the prison address managed to… Continue reading

“New York Redistricting: What Happened and Where Are We Going?”

June 11, 2024, 7:19 amcitizen commissions, redistrictingJustin Levitt

Jeff Wice and Piper Benedict godeepon the dysfunction in this round of redistricting in New York. There’s little question about the need for adjustment/clarification of the process. And also, reform of the legislative redistricting process in a state without a… Continue reading

Supreme Court Asks for US Government’s Views on North Dakota Racial Gerrymandering/Voting Rights Act Case

June 10, 2024, 6:52 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Order list and jurisdictional statement. Surprise! A brief from Alabama for 13 states would go much further in attempting to dismantle the Voting Rights Act as applied to redistricting. The request to hear from the Solicitor General means this… Continue reading

“Supreme Court sends dispute over Arkansas’ GOP-drawn congressional map back to lower court”

June 3, 2024, 6:57 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

NBC News: The Supreme Court on Monday told a lower court to take a fresh look at claims alleging that Republican-drawn congressional districts in Arkansas sought to minimize the influence of Black voters. The justices threw out a May 2023… Continue reading

“This Supreme Court ruling is a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card for racial discrimination”

May 31, 2024, 7:13 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Michael Li oped: The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority made it much easier last week to attack the political power of the nation’s growing communities of color. The high court’s attacking voting rights isn’t new. But the latest blow, in … Continue reading

“Commentary: ‘Good faith’? Not in the SC Legislature and not on the US Supreme Court”

May 31, 2024, 6:50 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Vernon Burton and Armand Derfner: Of all the defects in last week’s decision upholding South Carolina’s gerrymandered 1st Congressional District, none is more depressing than the U.S. Supreme Court’s debasement of the term “good faith.” As The Post and Courier… Continue reading

The long shadow of the Elections Clause

May 29, 2024, 6:01 amredistricting, Supreme CourtDerek Muller

Rucho v. Common Cause and Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP both involved congressional redistricting. Each took place, ostensibly, under Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 of the Constitution, the Elections Clause. From Rucho, “Congress has regularly… Continue reading

Breaking and Analysis: Justice Alito for Republican Justices, over the Dissent of Democratic Justices, Rewrites Racial Gerrymandering Standards to Help White Republican States

May 23, 2024, 7:11 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

[This post has been edited and updated.] In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Alito, the Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling holding that South Carolina’s congressional map was a racial gerrymandering. Justice Thomas concurred, and Justice Kagan,… Continue reading

“Minnesota ends prison gerrymandering”

May 20, 2024, 1:46 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Prison Gerrymandering Project: On Friday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed HF 4772 — an omnibus elections policy bill — into law, officially ending prison gerrymandering in the state. With this action, Minnesota joins the rapidly growing list of states that … Continue reading

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