Court Declines Preliminary Injunction Motion against California’s Prop 50 Congressional Map

Court Declines Preliminary Injunction Motion against California’s Prop 50 Congressional Map

By EditorJan 15, 20260 Comments
A 3-judge federal court panel has declined to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the use of California's new congressional map in the 2026 elections, which was approved by 64% of voters via Proposition 50 in a November special election. The legal challenge, brought by the California Republican Party and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged that the map constituted racial gerrymandering by disproportionately favoring Latino voting power. After a three-day preliminary injunction hearing, however, the court rejected these claims in a 2-1 ruling, with the majority opinion concluding that the map was a "political gerrymander" rather than a racially motivated…
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Indiana Senate Rejects Mid-Cycle Congressional Map Proposal

Indiana Senate Rejects Mid-Cycle Congressional Map Proposal

By EditorDec 11, 2025
The Indiana Republican-led Senate voted down a mid-decade congressional map on Thursday, December 11, 2025, which would have favored the Republican party in the 2026 elections. The map was designed to increase the number of Republican-controlled congressional seats from seven to nine by effectively eliminating Indiana’s two Democratic-held districts by splitting Indianapolis into four districts. The redistricting plan was defeated by a bipartisan majority, with 21 Republican senators joining all 10 Democrats in the chamber to vote against the measure. The vote occurred despite months of intense national pressure, including urging from President Donald Trump to engage in mid-cycle redistricting.…
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Utah Judge Chooses League of Women Voters’ Congressional Map, Rejects Legislature’s Plan

Utah Judge Chooses League of Women Voters’ Congressional Map, Rejects Legislature’s Plan

By EditorNov 14, 2025
A Utah trial court has selected a new congressional plan for the 2026 cycle, rejecting the Legislature’s October “Map C” and adopting the map offered by plaintiffs; the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.” In a 90-page ruling issued just before the court’s November 10 deadline, Third District Judge Dianna M. Gibson found Map C to be an “extreme partisan outlier” drawn to favor Republicans and held that it failed to comply with the neutral criteria required by Utah’s voter-approved Proposition 4. Judge Gibson ordered Plaintiffs’ Map 1 (see below) to take effect in…
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A New Lawsuit is Filed Against New York’s Congressional Map

A New Lawsuit is Filed Against New York’s Congressional Map

By EditorNov 05, 2025
A new state-court lawsuit filed on October 27 challenges New York’s existing congressional map and specifically targets New York’s 11th District, the city’s lone GOP-held seat covering Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn. Four voters, represented by the Elias Law Group, allege the district’s current configuration unlawfully dilutes the voting power of Black and Latino residents in violation of New York law, and ask the court to redraw the lines before 2026. The case names the New York State Board of Elections as defendant and was filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court. The plaintiffs point to racially polarized voting…
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Ohio Redistricting Commission Unanimously Approves New Congressional Map with Implications for the Mid-Decade Push

Ohio Redistricting Commission Unanimously Approves New Congressional Map with Implications for the Mid-Decade Push

By EditorOct 31, 2025
Ohio’s seven-member Redistricting Commission voted unanimously today to approve a new congressional map that will govern the state’s 15 U.S. House districts starting with the 2026 election cycle. The bipartisan deal preserves a GOP advantage and could shift the balance from the current 10-5 split to something closer to 12-3. Commissioners from both parties backed the plan to meet the Oct. 31 constitutional deadline and avoid sending map-drawing back to the legislature. Why a new map was required: under Ohio’s 2018 reform (Article XIX), the 2021 congressional map was adopted without the required bipartisan supermajority, authorizing it to govern only…
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North Carolina Becomes the 3rd State to Enact a Mid-Decade Congressional Map

North Carolina Becomes the 3rd State to Enact a Mid-Decade Congressional Map

By EditorOct 25, 2025
North Carolina has enacted a mid-decade congressional map that analysts say will shift the state’s delegation from 10 - 4 to 11 Republicans and 3 Democrats. GOP lawmakers pushed the plan through both chambers on Wednesday, October 22. Because the North Carolina constitution exempts redistricting bills from the governor’s veto, the map became law the moment the House vote concluded. Local coverage notes the new lines overhaul the coastal 1st District, trimming its Black voting-age share below 40 percent and adding Republican-leaning counties, while shoring up neighboring GOP seats. View a PDF of the map. The mid-cycle redraw comes after…
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Missouri Redistricting Effort Faces Referendum and Legal Challenges

Missouri Redistricting Effort Faces Referendum and Legal Challenges

By EditorOct 20, 2025
Missouri's new congressional map, signed into law by the state's Republican Governor late last month, has prompted an immediate and organized voter response. The new map seeks to realign the state’s representation, targeting a longtime Democratic seat and potentially shifting the congressional delegation from six Republicans and two Democrats to seven Republicans and one Democrat. Missouri is noted as the second state, following Texas, to implement a gerrymandered map amidst a nationwide redistricting battle. In opposition to the legislatively approved boundaries, the group People Not Politicians Missouri has mobilized approximately 3,000 volunteers to collect signatures for a petition aimed at…
Missouri, Strategy and Politics,
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The Court’s Second Look: Inside the October 15 Oral Argument in Louisiana v. Callais

The Court’s Second Look: Inside the October 15 Oral Argument in Louisiana v. Callais

By EditorOct 18, 2025
The Supreme Court reheard Louisiana v. Callais on Oct. 15, focusing on whether Louisiana’s intentional creation of a second majority-Black congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments. Louisiana enacted SB 8 in 2024, creating a second majority-Black district after a trial court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the legislature's 2022 congressional map, which consisted of one majority Black district. A three-judge court in the Western District of Louisiana preliminarily enjoined the court-ordered 2024 remedial map on April 30, 2024, as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander after voters sued. The State and intervenor-appellants took a direct appeal to the Supreme Court,…
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New GOP Lawsuit Targets Differential Privacy and Group Quarters Imputation, Claiming Flawed 2020 Census Data

New GOP Lawsuit Targets Differential Privacy and Group Quarters Imputation, Claiming Flawed 2020 Census Data

By EditorOct 11, 2025
A federal lawsuit challenging the underlying data of the 2020 U.S. Census has been filed in a Florida federal court by two young Republican organizations. The plaintiffs in this case, with potential national implications, are the University of South Florida College Republicans and its President, Michael Fusella, individually, along with the Pinellas County Young Republicans and its President, Parisa Mousavi, individually. The addresses associated with these plaintiffs fall within Florida's 14th Congressional District (represented by a Democrat) and the 15th Congressional District (represented by a Republican). The suit names the federal officials responsible for the data collection as defendants: Howard…
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How the Census Bureau and NCSL Modernized America’s Redistricting System

How the Census Bureau and NCSL Modernized America’s Redistricting System

By EditorOct 07, 2025
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) offers an engaging look at how its decades-long partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau reshaped the way America draws political boundaries. The article, “How NCSL and the Census Bureau Modernized Redistricting,” traces the evolution of that collaboration back to the 1970s, when the chaotic patchwork of state redistricting practices prompted Congress to pass Public Law 94-171. The law required the Census Bureau to deliver population data tailored to state district maps within a year of each census, laying the foundation for the precise, data-driven redistricting process used today. Through behind-the-scenes negotiations and technical…
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