On Friday, the Alaska Supreme Court issued its opinion detailing its March 2022 ruling that Alaska’s legislative (a.k.a. Proclamation) Map violated the state’s equal protection clause due to partisan gerrymandering. The opinion is not a surprise since the court made this conclusion clear in a March 25 2022 order. What is newsworthy, is that the court asked the Alaska Redistricting Board to make a case for restarting the redistricting process over to establish a final map for the rest of the decade.
After two failed attempts by the Redistricting Board to adopt a legislative map, a third map was used for mid-term elections in 2022 due to time constraints. This interim map happened to be one of the options the Board had been considering before it adopted the second map that was invalidated by Alaskan courts and is often referred to as the “Option 2 Map”. With the 2022 mid-terms in the rearview mirror, the court is looking for a way to resolve the case definitively, either by ordering that the interim map be used for the remainder of the decade or allow the Board another attempt to draft a legal map to replace the interim map.
Much of the litigation has revolved around the partisan behavior and district drawing of the redistricting board. Senate District K was found to be a partisan gerrymander in the first map adopted by the board due to the pairing of disparate geographic and demographic communities. In addition, courts determined Senate District E in the board’s amended map to be a violation of the state constitution because a majority of board members acted “in concert” to create 2 solidly Republican seats.
The court’s order gives the Redistricting Board 90 Days to show cause why the interim redistricting plan should not be the Board’s final redistricting plan for the 2020 redistricting cycle. If the Board can show “Good Cause” as to why it should have a third crack at a map, the court will oblige.
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