It’s understandable that much of the reaction to the Milligan decision on the VRA is to be stunned that the Roberts Court would endorse the VRA claim and require Alabama to create a second ability-to-elect congressional district for black voters… Continue reading

Politico on litigation that might lead to the redrawing of New York’s congressional map, with major implications for the composition of both New York’s delegation and the House as a whole: A legal challenge that could eventually give New York… Continue reading

NY State of Politics on the proposed New York bill to move some local elections on-cycle. Of course, county elected officials who won their positions in off-cycle elections oppose the change. By the same token, the beneficiaries of gerrymandering always… Continue reading

Jesse Wegman for the NYT on the red state exodus from ERIC — a shift impossible to square with any supposed interest in maintaining voter rolls and preventing fraud. Republican officials have for a long time rightly insisted on the… Continue reading

Brett Parker has posted this paper finding a moderate increase in ideological polarization on state supreme courts: Research has documented elite polarization in a variety of areas, including Congress, the executive branch, and the federal judiciary. To my knowledge, however,… Continue reading

This joint report from Protect Democracy, States United Democracy Center, and Law Forward tracks bills across the country that increase the risk of election subversion: As we demonstrate in this edition of the Report, the danger of a democracy crisis… Continue reading

This is a guest post from Ellen Katz: Much of Allen’s significance may lie in the small section of the Chief Justice ’s opinion that Justice Kavanaugh refused to join, and the final point Justice Kavanaugh offered in his… Continue reading

Rick Pildes wrote this piece for Slate on how plaintiffs may harness new redistricting technology to bring more successful Section 2 claims after Milligan: This new technology makes it possible to find VRA districts that might have been hard to… Continue reading

Here are some early thoughts on today’s historic and unexpected decision in Milligan: 1. The Roberts Court Did This? Before today, the Roberts Court had only chipped away at racial vote dilution claims under Section 2. In LULAC, the Court… Continue reading

There is no doubt that the opinion and outcome in Milligan is both unexpected and quite remarkable. But what makes Milligan remarkable for me is its utter conventionality. By and large, Milligan is a fairly straightforward application of precedent, doctrine,… Continue reading

I agree that it is a big day for voting rights advocates. This language of Justice Kavanaugh, however, concerns me. . . “JUSTICE THOMAS notes, however, that even if Congress in 1982 could constitutionally authorize race-based redistricting under §2 for… Continue reading