Wisconsin Lawsuit is Third Court Challenge Anticipating a Political “Impasse” for Redistricting Maps

By EditorAug 14, 2021
Wisconsin voters join voters in Pennsylvania and Minnesota by initiating litigation in anticipation of a political impasse between the legislative and executive branches in the map-redrawing process. A group of voters filed suit on Friday - less than one day after 2020 census numbers were released to kick off the nationwide redistricting process. Claiming that there is "no reasonable prospect that Wisconsin's political branches will reach consensus to enact district plans in a timely manner," the plaintiffs are asking a federal district court to intervene to establish redrawn congressional and state legislative districts. The complaint points out that "In the…
Case Updates, Casedocs, Equal Protection, LAW, Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation, , , ,
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Illinois Minority Leaders Challenge State Legislative Map Drawn with Census Survey Data

By EditorJun 13, 2021
On June 4, Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a state legislative district map drawn and approved by the Democratic majority in the legislature. The Senate and House minority leaders have in turn sued to have the map overturned in federal court on account of the data that was used for balancing population between districts was census 'survey' estimate data (from the American Community Survey (ACS)), and not the hard count data historically used for redistricting. Read the complaint here. The controversy stems from the months-long delay in delivery of redistricting population data by the Census Bureau due to the Covid-19…
Case Updates, Casedocs, Equal Protection, LAW, NEWS, Redistricting, Redistricting Equal Population, Redistricting Litigation, , ,
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Analysis: Do Redistricting Maps with Deviations Under 10% Violate the Equal Population Rule? Sometimes.

Analysis: Do Redistricting Maps with Deviations Under 10% Violate the Equal Population Rule? Sometimes.

By EditorOct 23, 2020
Most legal challenges to redistricting maps based on population deviation center around deviations that are too large. However, there are a handful of cases in which a court has found a map with minimal deviations (under 10%) to be unconstitutional. What is minimal? The equal population or “one-person, one-vote standard requires general population equality between districts, but there is no precise number or percentage that defines constitutionality. Instead, the Supreme Court interprets this constitutional requirement for congressional districts to mean “strict equality,” and for legislative and other local maps, districts need only to be “substantially equal.” In practice, a clear…
Equal Protection, FEATURES, Redistricting Equal Population, , , , ,
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Leading Expert in Redistricting “Grofman,” Suggests a Path to Proving Partisan Gerrymandering

By EditorJul 09, 2018
Bernard Grofman, author, professor at the University of California at Irvine, and an expert witness in a multitude of redistricting cases, published this article in the Washington Post today.  In it Grofman offers a way for courts to assess the level of partisan gerrymandering on a district-by-district basis when the challenge is based on the 14th amendment.  His assessment is timely, given the Supreme Court's recent decision in Gill v. Whitford, which rejected challenges to a map as a whole.  See our discussion of that here.  Grofman points to the court's line of racial gerrymandering cases as a guide and…
Equal Protection, Partisan Gerrymandering, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, ,
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The FiveThirtyEight Blog Releases the Atlas of Redistricting. The Maps are Impressive but Unusable

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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The Efficiency Gap Visualized Through the Decades

The Efficiency Gap Visualized Through the Decades

By EditorJan 18, 2017
The hottest thing in redistricting - if there is such a thing - is undoubtedly the emergence of "Efficiency Gap" analysis, and whether this measurement of how gerrymandered a map is, will receive the imprimatur of the U.S. Supreme Court.  While we wait, The Campaign Legal Center has released this report looking back through the decades to measure the efficiency gap in state legislative and congressional maps.  Their point is that partisan gerrymandering has never been more rampant and excessive than right now, but the charts show other interesting patterns as well.  Read the Report here.
Equal Protection, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Race Rules, , ,
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Supreme Court May Resurrect Alabama Legislative Black Caucus’ Equal Population Claims

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 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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