Redistricting Headlines for the week of January 10th 2022.
Thie biggest news from last week comes from Ohio, where the State Supreme Court delivered a one-two punch to lawmakers by invalidating the state legislative district map on Wednesday and striking down the congressional map on Friday. It described the maps as “infused with undue partisan bias,” and “incomprehensibly, more extremely biased than the 2011 plan that it replaced”. This last point refers to the constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018, which banned partisan gerrymandering when redrawing maps.
To encourage bipartisan line-drawing, the constitutional provision also called for maps to pass with supermajorities for enactment. In the case that a map passes without a supermajority, (For the congressional map: ⅗ of the members of each chamber of the General Assembly, including at least ½ of the members of each of the two largest political parties represented in the chamber in both chambers. For the legislative map: four of seven members of the Redistricting Commission, including at least two members who represent each of the two largest political parties represented in the General Assembly) a map would only be effective for 4 years.
On Jan. 11th, a North Carolina state trial court upheld the Republican-drawn congressional and state legislative maps – finalized in November of 2021- against partisan gerrymandering and minority vote dilution claims. The plaintiffs in this consolidated case quickly filed an appeal to the State Supreme Court, which announced Friday that it will hold a virtual hearing the morning of Feb. 2nd. Also on Friday, plaintiffs asked two of the judges set to hear the case to recuse themselves.
Redistricting has been particularly challenging in Pennsylvania as the legislative and legal process for it seems to be in a disarray. The state is currently attempting to pass congressional redistricting maps through its legislature while a pending lawsuit to have the state Commonwealth Court take over the map-drawing in anticipation of stalemate, looms in the background. There has reportedly been internal disagreement among Democratic lawmakers about how to proceed with this lawsuit. Election officials say a map must be in place by the end of January to comport with primary election filing deadlines. The legislature is currently considering a congressional map, but the Governor has suggested at least 2 alternative maps he dubs as more “fair.”
The PA Legislative Reapportionment Commission is responsible for redrawing state Senate and House districts. The comment period for its draft maps is ending this week. After that, the commission will finalize its maps but not everyone thinks the maps are fair.
Looking Ahead
Next week, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral argument on Wednesday, Jan. 19th in the case to redraw the state’s redistricting maps after the Governor vetoed both the congressional and state legislative maps passed by the legislature late last year.
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