Category Archives: redistricting

Very Important William & Mary Law Review Redistricting Symposium Now Available

May 23, 2018, 9:28 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Good things come to those who wait. This is a particularly important symposium, given all that has happened and soon will happen with redistricting. Issue 5 (APRIL 2018) ARTICLES: A Reasonable Bias Approach to Gerrymandering: Using Automated Plan Generation to … Continue reading

Chief Justice Roberts Almost Certainly Has, or Had, the Gill Partisan Gerrymandering Opinion

May 21, 2018, 7:35 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The ONLY case remaining from the October sitting (now that EPIC has been decided) is Gill, the partisan gerrymandering case and the only Justice who has not written yet from that sitting is CJ Roberts, who is skeptical of such… Continue reading

“Political Insiders Plotted the Most Gerrymandered District in America—and Left a Paper Trail”

May 21, 2018, 6:53 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

The Washingtonian on the Maryland gerrymander at issue in Benisek.

The Brazenness of Partisan Intent in the Court’s Gerrymandering Cases

May 15, 2018, 9:44 amredistricting, UncategorizedRichard Pildes

A significant feature in these cases is the sheer brazenness with which critical legislators in the redistricting process across various states have been willing to blatantly proclaim their aggressive partisan objectives. In the previous major cases before the Court, from… Continue reading

“Ohio Voters Pass Gerrymandering Reform Measure”

May 9, 2018, 7:42 amredistricting, referendumRick Hasen

HuffPost: Ohio voters approved a ballot measure on Tuesday that changes the congressional mapmaking process, a move proponents say will rein in excessive partisan gerrymandering. By passing the ballot measure, called Issue 1, Ohioans amended their state Constitution to… Continue reading

“Republicans Make Moves To Crush Gerrymandering Reform”

May 7, 2018, 9:02 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

TPM: With anti-gerrymandering efforts gaining steam, Republicans in some states are mobilizing to protect their ability to continue rigging election maps. In late April, a Republican group backed by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce sued to keep a popular redistricting… Continue reading

ACS Phone Briefing Today: Judicial Gerrymandering? The Voting Rights Act, Judicial Elections, and Redistricting

May 2, 2018, 7:33 amjudicial elections, redistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Details: Judicial Gerrymandering? The Voting Rights Act, Judicial Elections, and Redistricting May 2, 2018 01:00 PM – 02:00 PM Event Location: ACS Webinar , Details: In recent weeks, the North Carolina General Assembly has proposed redrawing the map of the… Continue reading

Robin Best Reviews “Gerrymandering in America”

May 1, 2018, 7:17 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Over at the Law and Politics Book Review, Robin Best reviews GERRYMANDERING IN AMERICA: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THE SUPREME COURT, AND THE FUTURE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, by Anthony J. McGann, Charles Anthony Smith, Michael Latner, and Alex Keena. New… Continue reading

“Pa. gerrymandering’s surprise co-conspirators: Democrats”

April 30, 2018, 10:25 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Philly Inquirer: But all those Democrats omitted an important detail: Each one joined with the GOP legislative majority in 2011 to pass the map that the state’s highest court would toss out as a Republican partisan gerrymander. In all, three… Continue reading

5th Circuit ID ruling … and the Texas redistricting case.

April 27, 2018, 5:02 pmelection administration, election law and constitutional law, redistricting, voter id, Voting Rights ActJustin Levitt

Earlier today, Rick noted the 5th Circuit’s opinion on Texas’s voter ID law. I agree with much of his critique of the court’s resolution of the section 3(c) preclearance issue. In my post on the Texas redistricting cases earlier… Continue reading

Rick Pildes: “Why gerrymandering is going to get even worse”

April 26, 2018, 7:59 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Smart Rick Pildes at the Monkey Cage: We have had only two redistricting cycles (2000 and 2010) in this transformed political terrain. When the stakes are so high that partisan control of the House might hang in the balance, more… Continue reading

Does the Chief Justice or Justice Gorsuch Have the Majority Opinion in Gill v. Whitford, the Wisconsin Partisan Gerrymandering Case?

April 24, 2018, 7:32 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Tea leaf reading from my colleague Leah Litman: https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/988783108194385920 Let me lay out a marker and say that if the Chief has it, I think he’s more likely to be the sixth vote to rein in partisan gerrymandering than the… Continue reading

Texas redistricting and the travel ban

April 24, 2018, 5:11 amredistricting, Supreme CourtJustin Levitt

(X-posted at Take Care.) Two of the last SCOTUS mega-cases of the Term share a little something. This morning, the Supreme Court hears argument in the Texas redistricting case. Tomorrow, the Court considers Trump’s travel ban. They’re both massive… Continue reading

“An Antidote for Gobbledygook: Organizing the Judge’s Partisan Gerrymandering Toolkit into a Two-Part Test”

April 7, 2018, 8:55 amredistricting, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Sam Wang and Brian Remlinger have posted this timely draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court appears ready to limit extreme partisan gerrymanders. However, defining “extreme” is a challenging proposition, since individual states differ in their political… Continue reading