The Bridge: Emails have emerged in a federal lawsuit that suggest Republicans gerrymandered congressional districts in Michigan in 2011 to maintain an advantage over Democrats, despite years of claims the lines are drawn without political bias. The lawsuit references private … Continue reading
Category Archives: redistricting
Hansi Lo Wang for NPR: A few months after he started leading the Commerce Department, Secretary Wilbur Ross became impatient. As a powerful decider for the U.S. census, he had a keen interest in adding a citizenship question to the … Continue reading
Charles Fried for the HLR Blog: There is a clear constitutional warrant. As long ago as 1986, the Court recognized that partisan gerrymanders manifestly offend the Fourteenth Amendment’s constitutional guarantee of equal protection. They are also contrary to the First Amendment’s … Continue reading
Michael Wines reports for the NY Times. … Continue reading
NYT editorial. Nice @nytopinion piece on redistricting commissions, BUT…. They were ruled as constitutional by a 5-4 SCOTUS vote in 2015. One of the 5 was Justice Kennedy. Will the law change if Kavanaugh is confirmed?https://t.co/OShiRHNlJ9 — Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) … Continue reading
The Detroit News reports on oral arguments. … Continue reading
The Detroit News reports. … Continue reading
Detroit News: The Michigan Supreme Court’s Republican majority may decide the fate of a proposal that could dismantle political map-making rules that critics argue the GOP has manipulated to keep and grow power in Lansing and Washington, D.C. The state’s highest court … Continue reading
Sam Wang, Ben Williams, and Rick Ober in the American Prospect: With prospects for federal action on gerrymandering fading fast, it’s time to pursue reform through individual states. Such a federalist approach lacks the sweeping breadth of constitutional doctrine. But … Continue reading
NPR: “After the Supreme Court declined to make a decision about whether partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional, the issue is becoming a campaign issue for Democrats around the country.” … Continue reading
Daily Press: “Now on its way, for the second time to the U.S. Supreme Court, the cost to taxpayers of the House’s intervention in the case has reached $4,067,098.03, according to Speaker Kirk Cox’s office. (In addition, the attorney general … Continue reading
Jason Harrow in The Hill. I wouldn’t count on it, much as I like the First Amendment associational rights theory that he suggests. … Continue reading
Plaintiffs in Common Cause v. Rucho have filed a new brief before the three-judge district court addressing Gill‘s impact on both standing and the merits of their constitutional claims. The brief and exhibits along with a press release are available here. An excerpt from … Continue reading
Story and video here. One of the creators sends this message: My name is Josh Lafair, and I am a junior in high school. I have always believed that America, despite its polarization, is a great democracy. Then I learned … Continue reading
My thoughts on the Take Care Blog. … Continue reading
In Monkey Cage. Citing recent racial and partisan gerrymandering decisions, he concludes: Many experts, including me, had hoped the Supreme Court would declare a standard for finding districts had been unconstitutionally gerrymandered for partisan advantage that looked at effects statewide. … Continue reading
The Michigan Supreme Court’s order: On order of the Court, the motions for leave to file briefs amicus curiae and the motion for leave to file response to amicus curiae brief are GRANTED. The application for leave to appeal the … Continue reading
Just before the holiday, Rick posted a Texas redistricting update: the trial court issued a briefing order asking what’s left of the case after SCOTUS remand. Rick thought “there’s not much left to do.” But while most of the fireworks … Continue reading
Here’s the order. There’s not much left to do after the Supreme Court killed most of the plaintiffs’ case in Abbott v. Perez. My take at Slate: Suppression of Minority Voting Rights Is About to Get Way Worse. … Continue reading
Michael Wines for the NY Times: For 14 years, as partisan gerrymanders across the country grew more extreme, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy came to symbolize hopes that the Supreme Court would eventually rein them in. His retirement this week did … Continue reading
HuffPo: The NAACP and a handful of voters filed a lawsuit on Thursday to strike down the map for the Connecticut legislature before the 2020 election. The plaintiffs say that lawmakers are unconstitutionally drawing district lines when they count prisoners as … Continue reading
Breaking: Supreme Court affirms without opinion lower court order rejecting partisan gerrrymandering claim in North Carolina https://t.co/GDhucsNWGM But two other cases remain pending and will work their way back to Court next term. This is somewhat of a surprise /1 … Continue reading
As I expected, the 3 judge court in the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case has set a quick schedule to consider standing issues under Gill following a Supreme Court remand. Briefs are due July 11. Assuming the lower court issues an … Continue reading
James Lucas for National Review. … Continue reading
Colin Campbell: #ncga Republicans are asking SCOTUS to scrap the court-drawn legislative maps for this election and use 2017 map plan instead, citing a SCOTUS ruling in another gerrymandering case earlier this week. More on this in tomorrow's @ncinsider #ncpol … Continue reading
Listen. … Continue reading
You can find the opinions here. After holding a bench trial in 2015, this Court issued a divided opinion upholding the redistricting plan. See Bethune-Hill v. Va. State Bd. of Elections, 141 F. Supp. 3d 505 (E.D. Va. 2015). The … Continue reading
Michael Li reminds us: Side note: There actually is a third North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case – Harris v. Cooper – that still is awaiting some action by SCOTUS. It also had been set for conference last week, but no … Continue reading
You can find it here. You can also read my Slate piece on the decision, “Suppression of Minority Voting Rights Is About to Get Way Worse; The Supreme Court has put its thumb on the scales in favor of discriminatory states. … Continue reading
Great opening quoting Justin Levitt and Rick Pildes in this well-done NPR report by Nina Totenberg on today’s Texas redistricting decision. … Continue reading
The Supreme Court has vacated and remanded the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case, rather than setting it for argument. This is another sign Justice Kennedy is not ready to weigh back in so fast. I discussed what that remand order … Continue reading
Listen at Slate’s Amicus. … Continue reading
Announcement via email: Hurry Up and Wait: What’s Next with Redistricting? Join ACS on June 26 at 4:30pm Eastern for a webinar featuring Paul Smith of the Campaign Legal Center and Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice discussing … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer reports. … Continue reading
The Court had the case on its conference docket for today, but it is possible these supplemental briefs will further delay disposition of the case. Jun 19 2018 Second supplemental brief of appellees Common Cause, et al. filed. (Distributed) Main … Continue reading
WaPo editorial. … Continue reading
Paul Edelman has posted this very interesting draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Evenwel v Abbott the Supreme Court left open the question of whether states could employ population measures other than total population as a basis for … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wisconsin Republicans are claiming victory with Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to send a lawsuit over the state’s legislative boundaries back to a lower court without addressing whether the map is constitutionally drawn. But Democrats say the ruling doesn’t put … Continue reading
Lee Drutman NYT oped: Reformers could certainly try again next year, perhaps finding new approaches to avoid the shoals of standing. But a better approach would be to revamp the antiquated electoral institution that makes elaborate districting schemes both possible … Continue reading
Guy Charles for the ACS Blog on Gill. … Continue reading
Carolyn Shapiro oped in The Hill. … Continue reading
Strong start: Special Feature: Symposium on the court’s rulings in Gill v. Whitford and Benisek v. Lamone Date Author Post Title 06.19.18 David Gans Symposium: The fight to vindicate our Constitution’s promise of democracy is far from over 06.18.18 Derek … Continue reading
Nina Totenberg reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Eric Segall for NBC Think. … Continue reading
Mike Parsons blogs. … Continue reading
Marcia Coyle: Stanford Law School’s Pamela Karlan, who filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group of law professors supporting the Wisconsin challengers, said the decision reflects “four justices who will never find this justiciable and four who will … Continue reading
Joan Biskupic for CNN. … Continue reading
Adam Liptak reports for the NYT: But the decisions were a setback for critics of gerrymandering, who had hoped that the Supreme Court would transform American democracy by subjecting to close judicial scrutiny the way districts have been redrawn to … Continue reading
Nina Totenberg reports for NPR. … Continue reading
McClatchy reports. … Continue reading