Redistricting Reform Moves Through Ohio Legislature

Redistricting Reform Moves Through Ohio Legislature

By EditorJan 07, 2015
Republicans have controlled state redistricting in Ohio for the past three decades through control of Ohio Apportionment Board. They are ceding a good deal of that power over redistricting by passing a reform bill last month that would give the minority substantial say over the final map. The bill " . . . would add two members, one from each party. And if the minority-party members did not approve of the district maps, the changes would last only four years, not the traditional 10" By shortening the lifespan of a "contested" redistricting map, the legislation gives incentive to the party in…
Redistricting Commissions, Redistricting Litigation
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Listen: Supreme Court Oral Argument in Alabama Racial Gerrymander Case

Listen: Supreme Court Oral Argument in Alabama Racial Gerrymander Case

By EditorDec 08, 2014
  Listen to the Supreme Court's oral arguments in the consolidated cases; Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama and  Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama. Democratic lawmakers in the Alabama legislature claim the Republican-led legislature packed Black voters into state legislative districts to dilute their voting power resulting in an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The court heard oral arguments on November 12th 2014.    
Equal Protection, LAW, NEWS, POLICY and PRACTICE, Race in Redistricting, Racial Gerrymandering, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Litigation, Redistricting Race Rules, ,
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Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Alabama Gerrymander is a Racial or Partisan One.

Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Alabama Gerrymander is a Racial or Partisan One.

By EditorDec 08, 2014
NPR previews Ala. Legis. Black Caucus v. Alabama; a claim alleging that the Alabama state legislature's 2010 legislative redistricting map is a racial gerrymander. Alabama says the Voting Rights Act made them create the map. Listen below. http://www.npr.org/v2/?i=363375057&m=363458938&t=audio  
Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Litigation, Redistricting Race Rules,
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One Year After Shelby, Growing Focus Toward Local Elections

One Year After Shelby, Growing Focus Toward Local Elections

By EditorJul 30, 2014
Since the Supreme Court invalidated the Department of Justices’ authority to enforce the preclearance requirements of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, voting rights organizations including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) insist a deluge of local election activity designed to disenfranchise African-American voters and political candidates will ensue. It has been just over one year since the Shelby decision, in which the court deemed the coverage formula for the act’s preclearance provision unconstitutionally outdated. In this election year, the question now becomes appropriate; Deluge or not? A quick check of the national headlines for the past year or…
Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation, Redistricting Race Rules
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Video: Senate Committee Ponders Life After Shelby and the VRAA

By EditorJul 21, 2014
July 21, 2014 Lately, the voting rights world has made the sharp distinction between voting rights before the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby v. Holder dismantling section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and after. It’s a distinction second perhaps only to B.C. and A.D., and for good reason. Those who applaud the Supreme court’s decision are relieved that the Justice Dept’s overly racialized paranoia about the smallest election decisions of state and local jurisdictions will cease and the federal governments’ tight grip on state sovereignty loosened. On the other hand, opponents of the decision rile at the blank check…
Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation
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2020 Vision : A Noteworthy Prediction for Redistricting in the Next Cycle

2020 Vision : A Noteworthy Prediction for Redistricting in the Next Cycle

By EditorJan 31, 2014
We are just three years into the decade long redistricting cycle that began with the 2010 census. It is a cycle that begins with sorting through winners and losers of the apportionment lottery as some states gain seats while others lose. Next, politics reigns supreme as states redraw political boundaries and proceed with the delicate task of drawing a map that can pass muster both legally and politically. The third phase, which lasts most of the decade, consists of meticulous judicial examination of maps and perhaps usable precedent, just in time for the next round. RealClearPolitics’ Senior elections analyst Sean…
Redistricting, Redistricting Race Rules, Strategy and Politics,
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Is the Proposed Voting Rights Act Amendment Constitutionally Defective?

Is the Proposed Voting Rights Act Amendment Constitutionally Defective?

By EditorJan 28, 2014
The recently proposed Voting Rights Act Amendment (VRAA) embodies the ambitious purpose of not only reanimating federal preclearance provisions invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court this past summer, but it also contemplates a more robust method of adding offending states and local jurisdictions to preclearance supervision beyond the coverage formula. While the main purpose of the VRAA is to update an outdated coverage formula for determining which jurisdictions are subject to preclearance pursuant to the Shelby County v. Holder decision, the proposed legislation does much more. In particular, it expands the statute’s bail-in provisions, which determine under what circumstances a…
Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation
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Congress Makes First Attempt at Voting Rights Act Amendment

Congress Makes First Attempt at Voting Rights Act Amendment

By EditorJan 23, 2014
Photo: David Sachs Last week U.S. Rep Jim Sensenbrenner   introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2014 (VRAA); a bill to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in an effort to revive the statutes’ powerful preclearance provisions that had allowed direct federal oversight of several states and local jurisdictions’ election-related activities. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the coverage formula in section 4 of the Act that had determined which jurisdictions would be obliged to seek preclearance or approval of all voting procedure changes. With the Supreme Court leaving the preclearance regime hobbled, thousands of election and voting…
Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation, Uncategorized
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Voting Rights and Campaign Finance Intersect in NC Lawsuit

By EditorOct 16, 2013
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the NC Legislature's redistricting map have requested for a second time that one of three judges on the panel hearing the case recuse himself. That judge, Paul Newby, had benefited from over $1 million in independent expenditures funded by the Washington-based Republican State Leadership Committee. The same group retained the map-drawer for the North Carolina districts in question under the lawsuit. This is not the first time plaintiffs in the case have asked for judge Newby's removal, Last year, the state supreme court denied a similiar request. The stakes are high at this point in…
Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation
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