“How did we get all this gerrymandering? A short history of the Republican redistricting scheme”
Dave Daley in The Guardian.
“Inside Democrats’ risky gambit to ‘fight fire with fire’ over election maps”
WaPo deep dive:
Their exodus, coordinated with top Democrats outside Texas, is the latest flash point in a rapidly spreading fight over election maps — embodying Democrats’ newly combative posture on redistricting. After Texas Republicans initiated an unusual mid-decade… Continue reading
Callais Offramps
As we all know, the Callais reargument potentially poses the momentous question of Section 2’s constitutionality. But it’s worth noting how many steps the Court would have to take to reach that question. Each of these steps represents an offramp… Continue reading
“In Election Cases, Supreme Court Keeps Removing Guardrails”
New York Times.
Developments in recent weeks signaled that some members of the court think there is more work to be done in removing legal guardrails governing elections. There are now signs that court is considering striking down or severely… Continue reading
I Spoke to CNN About Texas and Mid-Decade Redistricting
I spoke to CNN about Texas and Mid-Decade Redistricting@RedistrictNet @CNN pic.twitter.com/zTk1aqb3vs— Rick Pildes (@RickPildes) August 9, 2025
https://x.com/RickPildes/status/1954187436021432390
Justice Sotomayor Appears to Say That Term Limits for the Court Would be Unconstitutional, Even if Done by Constitutional Amendment
Fix the Court posts an audio recording of Justice Sotomayor speaking at an interview at the University of Zurich in July of 2024. Apparently, Fix the Court just obtained this recording recently. A Justice’s talk at a university is usually… Continue reading
“Seattle Voters Are Renewing Their Unique Approach to Public Campaign Financing”
Bolts Magazine:
Seattle is poised to continue its experiment in public campaign financing. Voters on Tuesday appear to have renewed the city’s democracy vouchers program, which provides each adult Seattle resident with four $25 vouchers they can donate to local… Continue reading
“How to end the forever redistricting wars”
Ansley Skipper and Drew Penrose write about the obvious solution to gerrymandering: proportional representation.
Most modern democracies don’t have legislative districts represented by only one legislator — which is why most don’t struggle with gerrymandering like we do. Instead, a… Continue reading
“It’s been 60 years since the Voting Rights Act was signed. Will it make it to 61?”
Zach Montellaro for Politico:
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law 60 years ago this week. What the law will look like when it reaches its 61st anniversary next year is a big question.
The landmark piece of legislation… Continue reading
Self-Districting Solves Both Problems
Rick H. has recently lamented that more media attention is being paid to the current fight over mid-decade redistricting than over the Supreme Court’s potential ruling in the Louisiana Voting Rights Act case. Both are huge developments in the field… Continue reading
SCOTUSblog column on “Justice, Democracy, and Law”
Here’s the first of a periodic column I will be doing for SCOTUSblog. It comes with this introductory description:
The biggest questions in constitutional law concern the power of the Supreme Court to decide questions differently from what elected officials… Continue reading
I Spoke with Jen Rubin of “The Contrarian” on Courts Chipping Away at the Voting Rights Act, and the Supreme Court Perhaps Killing Off Section 2
You can watch here.
Alabama Dodges Bail-in
Yesterday, the three-judge district court in the Alabama congressional redistricting litigation declined to bail-in the State to the VRA’s preclearance regime. You can find the district court’s decision here.
Recall that the district court had previously found that Alabama’s… Continue reading