Missouri Legislature Adopts New Congressional Map and Initiative Petition Reforms Amid Legal Challenges and Referendum Push

Missouri Legislature Adopts New Congressional Map and Initiative Petition Reforms Amid Legal Challenges and Referendum Push

By EditorSep 14, 2025
The Missouri Senate recently concluded a special session by passing a new congressional map and a proposal aimed at restricting the initiative petition process. The redistricting plan, approved by a 21-11 vote, seeks to convert U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-based 5th District into a Republican-leaning seat, marking a significant reversal from past legislative sessions. This push for new district lines was notably influenced by President Donald Trump, who reportedly pressured GOP-led states like Missouri to enact new maps before the 2026 midterm elections. The measure faced strong opposition from Democrats, who questioned the constitutionality of mid-decade redistricting, citing the…
Strategy and Politics, , ,
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Utah Court Throws Out Congressional Map, Orders Redraw

Utah Court Throws Out Congressional Map, Orders Redraw

By EditorAug 26, 2025
Utah’s redistricting fight reached a turning point on Monday, when Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that lawmakers unconstitutionally repealed the voter‑approved Proposition 4 and ordered the Legislature to enact a remedial congressional map for the 2026 cycle. Proposition 4 passed narrowly by voters in 2018 and was branded “Better Boundaries.” Prop 4 created a seven-member independent redistricting commission and required maps to meet neutral criteria, including equal population, compactness/contiguity, maintaining cities and counties together, respecting communities of interest, and forbidding the drawing of districts to favor or disfavor a party or incumbent unduly. The Legislature could enact or…
Case Updates, State Laws, Utah, , , ,
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Walking the Tightrope: How Courts Balance Minority Vote Dilution Rules and Racial Gerrymandering Limits

Walking the Tightrope: How Courts Balance Minority Vote Dilution Rules and Racial Gerrymandering Limits

By EditorAug 25, 2025
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act versus the 14th Amendment Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) prohibits any redistricting plan that dilutes the voting power of minorities. Since Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), plaintiffs preliminarily meet that standard by proving three conditions: the minority group must be large and compact enough to form a district, it must vote cohesively, and the white majority must usually defeat the minority’s candidate of choice. When those “Gingles preconditions” are satisfied, federal courts often order the state to draw an additional majority-minority district. The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, however, takes a…
Racial Gerrymandering, Voting Rights Act, ,
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Missouri, New York, and Louisiana Consider Taking Early Steps Toward Possible Mid-Cycle Map Redraws

Missouri, New York, and Louisiana Consider Taking Early Steps Toward Possible Mid-Cycle Map Redraws

By EditorAug 22, 2025
All three states are laying procedural groundwork but face distinct hurdles: executive hesitation and intra-party risk in Missouri, constitutional lead times in New York, and judicial uncertainty in Louisiana. Missouri: Gov. Mike Kehoe is “assessing options” for a special session after former President Donald Trump urged a 7-1 GOP map. No draft lines have been released, but Republican leaders say any plan would likely split Kansas City’s 5th District to unseat Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. New York: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie confirms leaders are “having discussions” after Gov. Kathy Hochul floated a Texas-style response, yet notes any mid-decade map would require…
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California High Court Rejects GOP Bid to Halt Mid-Decade Redistricting Measure

California High Court Rejects GOP Bid to Halt Mid-Decade Redistricting Measure

By EditorAug 20, 2025
The California Supreme Court has dismissed a Republican petition that sought to halt Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to place a mid-decade congressional redraw on the November ballot, saying that "petitioners [GOP lawmakers] have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under California Constitution article IV, section 8." The unsigned order, issued Aug. 20, leaves in place Democrats’ “gut-and-amend” legislation that would temporarily suspend the state’s independent redistricting commission and let voters decide whether to adopt new maps projected to add up to five Democratic seats, an answer to Texas Republicans’ July remap. The…
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Mid-Decade Redistricting: Where Else Could It Happen?

Mid-Decade Redistricting: Where Else Could It Happen?

By EditorAug 11, 2025
Gov. Greg Abbott put mid-decade redistricting on the agenda after Trump suggested a redraw and after a Trump-aligned DOJ letter questioned the legality of four existing districts. Texas’s special session, which convened on July 21 in part to redraw the congressional map, set off a chain reaction among states looking to counter what some say is an "unusual move," although not unprecedented. On July 30, House Republicans released a draft map that could flip the state’s delegation from 25-13 to roughly 30-8 in the GOP’s favor. Texas Democrats have fled the state to deny their Republican counterparts a quorum, and…
Redistricting, , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Texas Legislature Releases its First Congressional Map in Special Session

Texas Legislature Releases its First Congressional Map in Special Session

By EditorJul 30, 2025
Republican leaders in the Texas House have unveiled a draft congressional map for the ongoing special redistricting session, explicitly aiming to deliver up to five additional GOP seats, an outcome President Trump has publicly encouraged. Gov. Greg Abbott placed redistricting on the session’s agenda after Trump’s Department of Justice warned that portions of the current map may be unconstitutional. Still, House Republicans have acknowledged that partisan advantage is a central motive of this mid-decade redraw. The draft is still subject to amendment during the special session, and it is unclear whether additional versions will emerge. The aggressive move in Texas…
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U.S. Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Decision on Private Voting Rights Act Lawsuits

U.S. Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Decision on Private Voting Rights Act Lawsuits

By EditorJul 26, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a significant, albeit temporary, reprieve for voting rights advocates and individual litigants, putting on hold a controversial ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit holding that private plaintiffs cannot bring claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a ruling that could severely limit the ability of individual voters and advocacy groups to sue under the Act. This specific case originated from a challenge to North Dakota's 2021 state legislative map, which the plaintiffs, two Native American tribes and individual voters, argued diluted Native American voting power by…
Voting Rights Act, , , ,
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Proposed Census Changes Would Shift How Non-Citizens Are Counted for Apportionment

Proposed Census Changes Would Shift How Non-Citizens Are Counted for Apportionment

By EditorJul 18, 2025
NPR reports that Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are once again trying to whittle down who “counts” when House seats and Electoral College votes are allocated. Three GOP bills introduced this year would direct the 2030 census to identify non-citizens and then subtract some, or all, of them from the population totals used for apportionment. The newest measure, advanced this week by a House Appropriations subcommittee on a 9-6 party-line vote, would bar the Census Bureau from including undocumented residents. Companion bills from Sen. Bill Hagerty and Rep. Chuck Edwards go further, targeting every non-citizen, including those with green cards…
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New Wisconsin Lawsuit Against Congressional Map Features “Anti-Competitive” Claims

New Wisconsin Lawsuit Against Congressional Map Features “Anti-Competitive” Claims

By EditorJul 14, 2025
A bipartisan coalition of business leaders operating as the "Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy" filed a lawsuit in the Dane County Circuit Court last Thursday that brands the state’s eight-seat congressional map a “textbook example of an anti-competitive gerrymander.” Represented by Law Forward, Stafford Rosenbaum, and Harvard’s Election Law Clinic, the plaintiffs argue the current lines, drawn in 2022 under a conservative “least-changes” directive and adopted by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, suppress electoral competition in violation of several Wisconsin constitutional guarantees. The case arrives only weeks after the Wisconsin Supreme Court (now under a liberal majority) refused to hear two…
State Laws, Wisconsin,
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