Category Archives: redistricting

“Drawing Representation from Taxation: A Tax-Based Approach to Redistricting”

March 6, 2025, 6:40 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Jacob Hooper has written this student note for the George Mason Law Review. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court’s 2023 Allen v. Milligan decision upheld Thornburg v. Gingles from 1986. Gingles established preconditions creating majority-minority districts to protect a… Continue reading

“The Death of Competition in American Elections”

February 23, 2025, 4:32 pmpolitical parties, political polarization, redistrictingRick Hasen

NYT: President Trump’s return to Washington has tested the bounds of presidential power and set off alarms among Democrats, historians and legal scholars who are warning that the country’s democratic order is under threat. But a close review of… Continue reading

Supreme Court Rejects Racial Gerrymandering Claim Out of North Dakota Redistricting

January 13, 2025, 7:12 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

Michael Li explains:

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Redistricting Commissions in the 2021 Cycle”

January 13, 2025, 6:43 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Sam Wang and Zacharia Sippy have posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy). here is the abstract: In the last decade, redistricting commissions have proliferated across the United States as a means of… Continue reading

“Analysis: How redistricting helped Nevada Democrats — but not enough to gain supermajority”

December 1, 2024, 6:35 pmredistrictingJustin Levitt

The Nevada Independent goes deep on redistricting in Nevada — one of only four states, I believe, with no constraints in state law on how the lines are drawn.

“Ohioans Reject Redistricting Reform, Protecting GOP Gerrymanders”

November 7, 2024, 3:04 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Bolts: Ohioans on Tuesday rejected Issue 1, a ballot measure that would have created a new independent redistricting commission and stripped elected politicians of their power to draw congressional and legislative districts. The result is a blow to the democracy… Continue reading

Ranked Choice Voting Measures on Track to Lose in at Least Some States; Redistricting Reform Goes Down in Ohio

November 5, 2024, 9:58 pmalternative voting systems, redistrictingRick Hasen

Nick Stephanopoulos: Of the major democracy-related initiatives (not including AK & NV, where votes aren't in yet), only Maine's limit on Super PAC donations looks to be passing now. RCV is going down in AZ, CO, and ID, and… Continue reading

Breaking: Supreme Court Will Hear Louisiana Racial Gerrymandering Case, with Implications for Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act

November 4, 2024, 6:58 amredistricting, Supreme Court, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

The Court noted probable jurisdiction both the state’s and the LDF’s appeals. The cases are consolidated for argument. It will present another opportunity for the Court to address the “race or party” problem endemic in these racial gerrymandering cases.

“Anti-Gerrymandering Groups Warn That Ohio’s Ballot Language Is Misleading Voters”

October 28, 2024, 12:51 pmchicanery, direct democracy, redistrictingRick Hasen

New at Bolts.

“How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House”

September 24, 2024, 8:50 amredistrictingRick Hasen

New Brennan Center analysis: “Some of this decade’s congressional maps are models of fairness; others are decidedly not. Both parties engaged in gerrymandering after the 2020 census, but, overall, the bias in this cycle’s maps strongly favors Republicans due primarily… Continue reading

“Mississippi can wait to reset legislative districts that dilute Black voting strength, judges say”

July 19, 2024, 6:12 amredistricting, Voting Rights ActDan Tokaji

AP, on yesterday’s order in Mississippi State Conference of NAACP v. State Board of Election Commissioners: Mississippi can wait until next year to redraw some of its legislative districts to replace ones where Black voting power is currently … Continue reading

“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