ABC 11 reports, and posts the judge’s opinion. … Continue reading
Category Archives: redistricting
Charlotte Observer. They’ll have to get in line. There’s already a partisan gerrymandering claim from NC pending in an appeal at the Supreme Court, and ongoing partisan gerrymandering litigation in Wisconsin and Maryland. All in an effort to shape the … Continue reading
Here is the jurisdictional statement in Harris v. McCrory. I believe this is the first case raising issues of partisan gerrymandering to make it to the Supreme Court since Justice Scalia’s passing. Will they touch it? I don’t know. One … Continue reading
Closing arguments were almost two years ago. Disgraceful. (I have my suspicions about what’s going on, but let’s wait until the opinion actually issues (if it is not mooted by the 2020 round of redistricting.).) … Continue reading
This looks to be an important new draft from Ned Foley. Here is the abstract: American democracy is plagued by excessive partisanship, and yet constitutional law thus far has been incapable of redressing this ill. Gerrymandering is one clear example: … Continue reading
Daily Press: A case that could recalibrate what documents state legislators can keep secret was heard Tuesday in the Supreme Court of Virginia. Vesilind v. Virginia State Board of Elections is primarily a redistricting case, brought to challenge 11 General Assembly … Continue reading
NYT editorial: Voting rights advocates have been pressing the Census Bureau for more than a decade to stop counting prison inmates as “residents” of prisons — where they typically remain for only a short time — instead of the communities … Continue reading
The federal challenge to Texas’s strict voter identification law is pending before the entire Fifth Circuit sitting en banc. The Supreme Court set a soft July 20 deadline for a decision—after that the Court has invited plaintiffs to seek immediate … Continue reading
From RBG’s must-read interview with AP’s Mark Sherman: Ginsburg was pleased with her majority opinion in yet another case from Texas in which the court upheld the state’s decision to count everyone, and not just eligible voters, in drawing its … Continue reading
Lisa Sorenen blogs about a webinar. I’m one of the speakers. … Continue reading
The opinion in Raleigh Wake Citizens Association v. Wake Co. Board of Elections is here. The court applies the standard from Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission for deviations under 10%, finding it “more probable than not that the population deviations at … Continue reading
Jeff Wice writes at New York Election News: Of major importance is a change to the way prison population are reported. After the 2010 census, New York, Maryland and Delaware enacted laws to reassign prisoner populations to “homes of record” before … Continue reading
American Prospect on Whitford v. Nichol. … Continue reading
On yesterday’s noting of probable jurisdiction in McCrory v. Harris: Charlotte Observer The Hill Politico Roll Call U.S. News … Continue reading
Check it out: Sam Wang has created this site (currently in beta) with online calculators for the statistical tests described in his recent article in Stanford Law Review. … Continue reading
Elizabeth Kolbert reviews Ratf**ked in the New Yorker. … Continue reading
Release: Three academics with fresh ideas to identify and analyze how politicians draw legislative boundaries for political advantage have been declared the winners of Common Cause’s second annual Gerrymander Standard Writing Competition. 1st Place: Wendy Tam Cho and Yan Y. Liu of the University of Illinois … Continue reading
Announcement: It is a banner year in the Supreme Court for redistricting cases! Aside from Evenwel v. Abbott, holding that states may redraw legislative districts based on total population, the Court decided three other redistricting cases that will be important … Continue reading
Josh Gerstein reports for Politico. … Continue reading
The Supreme Court this morning noted probable jurisdiction in the Bethune-Hill case, raising racial gerrymandering claims in state legislative elections in Va. The SCOTUSBlog page is here. Just a few weeks ago, the Court dismissed on standing grounds a racial … Continue reading
A few months ago, a three judge court held that North Carolina’s congressional redistricting included an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. This case is currently on appeal to the Supreme Court. To remedy the violation, the NC legislature came up with a … Continue reading
Michael Curtis has posted this draft on SSRN (Wake Forest Law Review). Here is the abstract: This Article focuses on new developments in the ongoing saga of North Carolina’s 2011 state legislative and congressional reapportionment and gerrymander. The earlier article … Continue reading
Derek the Muller: A federal district court handed down a memorandum and order for summary judgment in Davidson v. City of Cranston, a case concerning “prison gerrymandering” in Rhode Island. The court concluded that the city improperly drew districts that … Continue reading
Following up on this post linking to their SSRN paper, Jon Krasno, Daniel Magleby, Michael D. McDonald, Shawn Donahue and Robin Best have written this piece for the Monkey Cage. … Continue reading
Jon Krasno, Daniel Magleby, Michael D. McDonald, Shawn Donahue and Robin Best have posted this draft on SSRN, just as the Wisconsin gerrymandering trial gets underway. Here is the abstract: In July, 2015 a group of Wisconsin Democrats filed a … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: he Court also ruled today in Wittman v. Personhuballah, finding that the members of Congress who intervened to defend Virginia’s congressional redistricting plan do not have standing to appeal. Coverage comes from Lyle Denniston for this blog, Adam Liptak … Continue reading
The Supreme Court has decided Wittman v. Personhuballah, ruling against members of Congress on standing grounds. The lower court found that the congressional plan was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and the members of Congress challenged this holding. In a short … Continue reading
CLC blog. … Continue reading
Arizona’s Politics: In the wake of two GOP defeats at the U.S. Supreme Court, Republicans at the Arizona Legislature are using their budgetary powers to sweep $695,000 from the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (“AIRC”). The funds were to be used … Continue reading
Erwin Chemerinsky in the ABA Journal: At the beginning of American history, the Supreme Court was required to hear every case brought to it. Over time, Congress modified these statutes, most recently in 1988, so that today the court has … Continue reading
Gerry Hebert and Paul Ryan for Moyers & Co. … Continue reading
Lisa Sorenen on Harris case at NCSL blog. … Continue reading
Japan Times: The sharp disparity in the weight of votes between populous and less populous electoral districts — in which voters in some constituencies have more power in electing their representatives to the Diet than those in others — is … Continue reading
Here is the motion to dismiss in the remanded Shapiro v. McManus case. … Continue reading
Adam Liptak in the NYT. … Continue reading
I don’t know if this has set a record, but this is unconscionable. New order. … Continue reading
Arizona’s Politics is on it. … Continue reading
The Orlando Sentinel reports. … Continue reading
The Supreme Court in a short, unanimous opinion by Justice Breyer, has rejected challenges to Arizona’s state redistricting done by commission. The Court held that it is permissible to deviate from perfect population in drawing state legislative district lines (generally … Continue reading
Florida Politics: A panel of federal judges Monday shot down U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown‘s challenge of Florida’s congressional redistricting. In a 26-page order, the three judges said Brown had “not proven (her) case and that defendants are entitled to judgment in their favor.” … Continue reading
Ilya Shapiro and Thomas Berry oped in the NLJ. … Continue reading
Jeff Wice blogs. … Continue reading
I have posted this draft in progress (forthcoming, in Japanese translation, in America-ho (Biannual journal of the Japanese American Society for Legal Studies) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Essay, based on a keynote address prepared for delivery at the 2016 … Continue reading
Janai Nelson blogs at Hamilton and Griffin on Rights. … Continue reading
WaPo: A leading Democratic senator said Friday that Gov. Larry Hogan (R) may be open to a compromise proposal for redrawing the boundaries of congressional districts, after his own plan has stalled in the legislature for three months. Sen. Jamie … Continue reading
Back in December, I reported how a new Wisconsin partisan gerrymandering lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss, calling it a big deal. As I explained: The state of play in partisan gerrymandering claims is a crazy one: thanks to the … Continue reading
Asher Steinberg on Evenwel. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Brentin Mock for CityLab. … Continue reading
David Gans on Evenwel. … Continue reading