“Black Residents in West Tennessee Just Won Fairer Districts. Now Comes SCOTUS”

Voting Rights Act,

New article from Bolts Magazine reporting on what the likely demise of the Voting Right Act could mean for local governments — specifically in the context of a battle for Black voting power in a rural county in west Tennessee.

The article focuses on the Fayette County’s board of commissioners, whose 19 members are all white despite the county’s large Black population, who are trying to persuade it to reopen and much loved and needed community center.

“Section 2 most of the time has been used at the local level,” says Kevin Morris, a voting policy scholar with the Brennan Center for Democracy. “That is where both the earthquake of Callais might be felt the most strongly, and also where we might be least prepared to identify these changes because of the demise of local media.” 

“It could be like a one-two punch to racial representation at the local level,” Morris added.

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“Republicans’ Redistricting Push Is at Risk of Backfiring”

political polarization, redistricting

Nate Cohn for the Tilt at the N.Y. Times focuses on the “series of setbacks for the G.O.P. [that] leave[] an unlikely opening for Democrats to narrowly win this year’s redistricting wars.

” . . . .[I]t’s worth being cautious about predicting what will come next. But looking ahead, only two additional states seem likely to redraw their maps: Virginia, controlled by Democrats, and Florida, controlled by Republicans. These two efforts should more or less cancel each other out. But here again Republicans probably face a greater risk of disappointment.”

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“Voting rights groups ask federal judges to block new gerrymandered NC congressional districts”

political polarization, redistricting, ,

NC Newsline’s the Pulse reports on oral arguments yesterday before a federal three-judge panel in Winston-Salem, NC, with respect to the NAACP and Common Cause’s challenge to the newly drawn congressional districts for eastern and northeastern North Carolina–the ones Republicans adopted in October.

The plaintiffs are relying in part on a novel argument that that the mid-decade, voluntary redistricting retaliated against voters, “argu[ing] that the redistricting deliberately targeted the people in that district for how they voted in 2024.”

“Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), who was in charge of drawing the districts, was the hearing’s only witness. No racial data was used to create the plan, he said.

‘We undertook the process to improve the partisan advantage for Republicans,’ Hise said. 

Klein argued that if allowed, Republicans would be able to redistrict after every election if they don’t like the results.”

One of the three judges expressed skepticism that plaintiffs could win a preliminary injunction based on a novel argument:

“Judge Thomas Schroeder suggested that the novelty of the retaliation argument would work against opponents’ efforts to have the map blocked until the case can be tried. They have to show a likelihood of success on the merits to win a preliminary injunction.”

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“Attorney general’s edits to constitutional initiative went too far, Montana Supreme Court rules”

direct democracy,

AP News: Montana Supreme Court, over two dissents, sided with Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts, finding that the Montana Attorney General “went too far in editing ballot language for an initiative calling for nonpartisan court elections.” Earlier coverage of the issue is here.

“’We conclude the Attorney General’s proposed Statement does not meet the requirements of (the law), because his wording does not fairly state to the voters what is proposed within CI-132,’ Justice James Shea wrote for a four-judge majority.”

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