Texas calls second special session for redistricting

August 15, 2025, 11:19 amelection law and constitutional law, political parties, redistrictingHatch ActJustin Levitt

Gov. Abbott called a second special session Friday morning, calling the legislature into action for a second shot at redistricting maps (and, at least in theory, other issues). The call for the first special session asked the legislature to consider… Continue reading

“Is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Unconstitutional?”

August 15, 2025, 7:39 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Bradley Smith and I talked about Callais and the future of Section 2 in the National Constitution Center’s “We the People” podcast with Jeffrey Rosen. In this episode, Bradley Smith of Capital University Law School and Nicholas Stephanopoulos of Harvard… Continue reading

“Democrats are fighting fire with fire over redistricting – but will democracy burn?”

August 15, 2025, 7:07 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Sam Levine for the Guardian: “Gerrymandering is bad enough once a decade,” said Richard Pildes, a law professor at New York University. “But if we open the door to continual efforts throughout the decade to squeeze out every additional seat… Continue reading

“Texas Democrats say they will return to state once session ends, California unveils retaliatory map”

August 14, 2025, 5:46 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Texas Tribune: Texas House Democrats who left the state in protest of proposed congressional redistricting said Thursday they will return to the state after the Legislature adjourns Friday and California’s state lawmakers introduce a retaliatory redistricting map in their… Continue reading

“Justice Department presses Texas for list of registered voters, and the officials who check it”

August 14, 2025, 5:44 pmUncategorizedRick Hasen

Votebeat.

The TBD details on California’s redistricting special election

August 14, 2025, 3:34 pmelection law and constitutional law, political parties, redistricting, The Voting WarsJustin Levitt

Justin here. Today, California Gov. Newsom announced what he’d been foreshadowing for a while now — an effort to seek voters’ approval for new congressional district lines in a Nov. 4 special election. (Rick noted the border patrol “escort” for… Continue reading

Annals of Authoritarianism: Trump’s Military Agents Appear Outside California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Conference on Redistricting Reform

August 14, 2025, 3:02 pmauthoritarian threats in USRick Hasen

Truly frightening stuff: As Gov. Gavin Newsom prepared to announce that he would take on President Trump’s redistricting plans on behalf of California, scores of federal immigration agents massed outside the venue Thursday. Newsom was set to speak at… Continue reading

“The Dangers of America’s Gerrymandering Problem—And How to Fix It”

August 14, 2025, 2:59 pmredistrictingRick Hasen

Benjamin Schneer and Maxwell Palmer in TIME: Instead, we believe it is possible to make reforms that keep the current electoral system while also overcoming some of its flaws. We’ve developed a process-based solution that has a number of… Continue reading

NVRA Case Against Virginia Voter Purge Purportedly to Remove Non-Citizens Survives Motion to Dismiss

August 14, 2025, 1:01 pmNVRA (motor voter), voter registrationRick Hasen

See this press release from the Lawyers’ Committee about this ruling from a federal district court partially denying the state’s motion to dismiss.

“The Racial Gap in Trust in Elections (and How to Close It)”

August 14, 2025, 12:56 pmelection administrationRick Hasen

Laura Uribe, Kailen Aldridge, Thad Kousser, Kyshan Nichols-Smith, and Tye Rush have written this article in Political Science Quarterly (also a version here without a subscription). Here is the abstract: While the contemporary conversation about trust in U.S. elections focuses… Continue reading

Fifth Circuit Affirms Lower Court Ruling that Louisiana STATE Legislative Maps Violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act

August 14, 2025, 10:26 amVoting Rights ActRick Hasen

Per curiam opinion here (with one judge concurring in the judgment). At the end of the opinion, the court rejects a constitutional challenge to Section 2. The Louisiana v. Callais case currently before the Supreme Court concerns Louisiana’s congressional maps.

“How to Avoid a Gerrymandering War”

August 14, 2025, 8:33 amUncategorizedNicholas Stephanopoulos

Ron Brownstein in Bloomberg (paywalled). “The current House is unusual in the modern era in being very close to perfectly neutral according to various measures of partisan bias,” Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a professor at Harvard Law School and expert in redistricting,… Continue reading

“Poll: California voters back independent congressional maps, complicating Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push”

August 14, 2025, 7:54 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Politico: California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a major hurdle in his quest to revamp his state’s congressional lines, according to a new poll: Californians’ deep support for its current independent redistricting commission. By nearly a two-to-one margin, voters prefer… Continue reading

“A strange GOP divide is forming over Trump’s gerrymandering plans”

August 14, 2025, 7:50 amredistrictingRick Hasen

Politico: President Donald Trump’s aggressive redistricting push is sparking public concern from an unusual mix of Republicans. Resistance to mid-decade redraws is running the ideological gamut and cutting across levels of government. While many are backing Trump’s gambit to protect… Continue reading