Listen to Supreme Court Oral Arguments in the North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case

By Michelle DavisApr 25, 2019

On March 26, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Rucho v. Common Cause, a partisan gerrymandering case from North Carolina.Click here for background on this case and its companion case, Benesik v. Lamone (Maryland). For a pre oral symposium hosted by ScotusBlog, click here. Click here to listen to oral argument in its companion case, Benesik v. Lamone.

FEATURES, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Litigation, VIDEOCommon Cause, legal, lpscotus, North Carolina, northcarolina, oral argument, partisan gerrymandering, Rucho, scotus, States, Supreme Court

SCOTUSblog Symposium in Anticipation of Oral Arguments in Partisan Gerrymandering Cases

By Michelle DavisFeb 25, 2019

. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in two key partisan gerrymandering cases on March 26; one from Maryland (Benesik v. Lamone) and one from North Carolina (Rucho v. Common Cause). In preparation for these arguments, the editors at SCOTUSblog hosted this pre-argument symposium featuring a group of experts on redistricting law. Here is a quick summary of each contributor's essay. You can click to read each article in full. . Justin Levitt: Suggests that the unconstitutionality of excessive partisan gerrymandering follows from the fact that there is widespread agreement (in the legal community) that any State law that…

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Are Redistricting Commissions in Danger?

By Michelle DavisJan 09, 2019

Arizona, California and more recently, Ohio are among the handful of states that have established independent redistricting commissions by ballot measures. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a challenge to Arizona's commission, but at least one election law expert warns that the court may reverse itself on this question in the future. Rick Hasen, Professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine believes this is a real possibility. Read the article in the Atlantic.

FEATURES, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting, Redistricting Commissions, REFORMArizona, Independent Redistricting Commission, scotus, Supreme Court

Listen to the NCSL Webinar on Recent Supreme Court Gerrymandering Decisions

By EditorJul 24, 2018

Last week the National Conference of State Legislatures hosted this webinar on the recent Supreme Court Partisan Gerrymandering decisions. You can watch/listen below. The discussion gives good insight into the current posture of the litigation in Wisconsin and Maryland and other states. (more…)

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Video: A Neat Lesson on Less Obvious Gerrymanders

By EditorJul 23, 2018

People often often associate gerrymandering with "ugly," districts that have tortured boundaries, but many gerrymanders are quite pretty. This tutorial on gerrymandering by the Princeton Gerrymandering Project is one of the best visualizations of how gerrymandering can masquerade as a visually appealing map with compact districts. (more…)

FEATURES, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, REFORM, VIDEOBASICS, partisan symmetry, Princeton Gerrymandering Project

The FiveThirtyEight Blog Releases the Atlas of Redistricting. The Maps are Impressive but Unusable

By EditorJan 28, 2018

This week, the sports and politics polling blog FiveThirtyEight released its Atlas of Redistricting. It takes a comprehensive look at the mapping possibilities for every congressional district in the nation, and is part of the site’s Gerrymandering Project, which seeks to uncover in their words, “[what] is greatly misunderstood . . .” about redistricting and whether “gerrymandering can (or should be) killed.” The maps are impressive. They produce congressional maps for seven common, but vastly different redistricting goals. The result is that you get to see what your (or any) state’s congressional map would like if it were drawn…

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Arizona Supreme Court Case Could Threaten Redistricting Commissions in these 6 States

By EditorMar 10, 2015

Last week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The case centers around whether voters by initiative, can transfer the authority to redraw state and congressional boundaries from the state legislature to an independent commission, something Arizona has been doing since 2000. This Brennan Center report lists those states with commissions that could be in jeopardy should the Supreme Court side with the Arizona legislature in this case. Read the report here.

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Early Analysis of Supreme Court Oral Argument in Arizona Redistricting Case

By EditorMar 03, 2015

Hear are early assessments of the Supreme Court's oral argument yesterday in Arizona Legislative Black Caucus v. Arizona. Click the links for analysis. SCOTUSBLOG: Argument analysis: Literalism vs. the power of the people NYT: Court Skeptical of Arizona Plan for Less-Partisan Congressional Redistricting NPR: Supreme Court Seems Divided Over Independent Redistricting Commissions Politico: High Court Hears Redistricting Case Election Law Blog: Analysis: Supreme Court Looks to Endanger Citizen Redistricting Commissions and MORE Christian Science Monitor: Supreme Court: Can independent commissions draw redistricting lines?

Elections Clause, FEATURES, RedistrictingArizona, Independent Redistricting Commission

Supreme Court May Resurrect Alabama Legislative Black Caucus’ Equal Population Claims

By EditorMar 02, 2015

The Alabama Legislative Black Caucus' Supreme Court Case was late last year, and focused on whether that state's 2012 legislative redistricting plan was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Interestingly, there was a second question presented in the case at the district court level: "whether the 2012 redistricting plans allocate control of local delegations in a manner which violates Equal Protection, effectively denying county residents equal voting rights." This "second" question is actually an equal population challenge, and is based on the redistricting maps' gratuitous breaching of county jurisdiction lines. In Alabama, it is local state legislative delegations that have most of…

Casedocs, Equal Protection, FEATURES, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting LitigationAlabama, lpequalpro, States, Supreme Court