Category Archives: redistricting

Nate Persily on The Supreme Court’s Big Data Problem in Evenwel

June 3, 2015, 7:16 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Politico: Legitimate philosophical arguments can be made in favor of using one set of statistics over another — just as one could argue that some concerns in redistricting, such as keeping counties or communities intact, should override the concern… Continue reading

Common Cause “Gerrymander Standard” First Place Winner

June 3, 2015, 6:00 amelection law biz, redistrictingDan Tokaji

We are thrilled to announce the first place winners of the Common Cause “Gerrymander Standard” writing competition. Michael D. McDonald and Robin E. Best of Binghamton University (SUNY), authors of “Unfair Partisan Gerrymanders in Politics and Law: A Diagnostic… Continue reading

“A ‘magnificent seven’ county supervisors?”

June 2, 2015, 7:42 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

OC Register editorial: It’s counterintuitive, but, sometimes, one way to improve politics is to increase the number of politicians. That’s the theory behind Senate Constitutional Amendment 8, by state Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia. It would mandate that, beginning after… Continue reading

Bauer on McCutcheon, Evenwel, and the Meaning of “Constituent”

June 2, 2015, 7:48 amcampaign finance, redistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Worth your morning read.

Common Cause “Gerrymander Standard” Second Place Winner

June 2, 2015, 6:00 amelection law biz, redistrictingDan Tokaji

This week, we’re announcing the winners of Common Cause’s inaugural Democracy Prize writing competition to identify the best “gerrymander standard.” Yesterday we announced the third place winner. Today we’d like to offer our congratulations to second place winners Jowei … Continue reading

Ed Blum Hints He’ll Be Done After Trying to Knock Out Affirmative Action, Voting Rights Act, and One Person, One Vote

June 1, 2015, 11:39 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

TPM: Evenwel v. Abbott is the culmination of Blum’s decades long effort to take on racially-influenced redistricting, having failed twice before with “one person, one vote” cases that stopped at the Supreme Court’s doorstep. It is expected to be… Continue reading

“In Supreme Court redistricting case, it’s the ‘whole number of persons'”

June 1, 2015, 11:26 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Ackerman and Ayres LAT oped.

Common Cause “Gerrymander Standard” Third Place Winner

June 1, 2015, 6:00 amelection law biz, redistrictingDan Tokaji

As co-chairs of Common Cause’s inaugural Democracy Prize writing competition to identify the best “gerrymander standard”, it’s our privilege to announce the winners of the competition this week, as promised on Friday. First up is our third-place entry, which… Continue reading

“One Person, One Vote? The Supreme Court will consider whether equality of representation requires equal numbers of eligible voters, or equal numbers of people.”

June 1, 2015, 5:58 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Garrett Epps for The Atlantic.

Nate Persily Talks to Bloomberg Law’s June Grasso about Evenwel

May 29, 2015, 5:18 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Listen.

Common Cause “Gerrymander Standard” Winners Will Be Announced Next Week

May 29, 2015, 1:31 pmelection law biz, redistrictingDan Tokaji

Last year Common Cause launched the inaugural Democracy Prize Writing Competition to identify the best “gerrymander standard.” We had the honor of serving as co-chairs of the judging panel. Our goal was to encourage fresh thinking about a standard … Continue reading

Misleading 538 Headline on the Effect of Evenwel on Congressional Reapportionment

May 29, 2015, 10:46 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

538 has a post, The Supreme Court Could Give The GOP Another 8 Seats In Congress, by the very smart David Wassernman and Harry Enten, but its headline is quite misleading. As I’ve explained at Slate, at stake in… Continue reading

Derek Muller with the Conservative Case Against Evenwel

May 29, 2015, 7:52 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Must-read: It might be that population-based redistricting in Texas, and for that matter in most states, is unwise for this reason. The argument that these practices are quite administrable and wholly consistent with decades of practice, while true, may… Continue reading

“Supreme Court Could Implode Heavily Latino Legislative Districts”

May 28, 2015, 3:49 pmredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Jon Fleischman: Clearly this case presents a conflict for conservatives, who would otherwise welcome the political ramifications of changes in districts, because such a ruling, if it came down, would represent a severe legal assault on the notion of… Continue reading