Maryland’s Sixth District Ruled a Partisan Gerrymander by Federal District Court

By Michelle DavisNov 14, 2018

On November 7th, after managing a protracted series of procedural issues involving a lawsuit that was initially filed in 2013, a federal district court panel invalidated Maryland's 6th congressional district on grounds that it was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Maryland has until early March 2019 to enact a new congressional map or the court will create its own commission to do so. This case is notable since the court overturned the map on 1st amendment grounds instead of the 14th amendment, which until recently had been the basis for most if not all partisan gerrymandering challenges. (more…)

LAW, NEWS, Partisan Gerrymandering, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Litigation, Uncategorized1st Amendment, congressional, gerrymandering, lawsuit, legal, map, Maryland, partisan gerrymandering, States

Watch: Briefing and Discussion on Redistricting and Voting at the Washington Foreign Press Center

By EditorNov 05, 2018

American University Professor David Lubin, discusses Redistricting and Election Laws at the Washington Foreign Press Center on November 1, 2018. (more…)

Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, REFORM, Strategy and PoliticsAmerican University, VIDEO

Watch: NCSL Expert Discusses Redistricting and the Midterm Elections

By Michelle DavisNov 02, 2018

Tim Storey, expert on Elections and Redistricting for the National Conference of State Legislatures, discusses how the upcoming mid-terms will affect redistricting. Partisan gerrymandering and the recent Pennsylvania congressional map decision is discussed. (more…)

Redistrictingelections, midterms, ncsl, redistricting, Tim Storey

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Pennsylvania Republican’s Congressional Map Appeal

By Michelle DavisNov 01, 2018

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari to Republican lawmakers in the Pennsylvania legislature after a January ruling by the Pa. State Supreme Court invalidating the congressional map enacted by the body in 2011. (more…)

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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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Concerns about the Cyber-Security of the 2020 Census Elevate

By EditorJul 24, 2018

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center has sent a signed letter to the Secretary of Commerce and the Acting Directer of the U.S. Census Bureau requesting assurances that the upcoming decennial census will be accurate and secure given heightened threats in the cyber-security environment. (more…)

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Michigan State Supreme Court Hears Argument on Commission Ballot Initiative

By EditorJul 24, 2018

Last week, the Michigan State Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that pits redistricting reform advocates at odds with opponents about whether to allow a proposal for an independent redistricting commission on the ballot this election year that would amount to a sweeping reform of the redistricting process if approved by Michigan voters. (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…)

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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…

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ABC News Takes a Deeper Look at Pennsylvania’s New Congressional Map

By EditorMar 12, 2018

Pennsylvania - The state's new congressional map drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court may look more esthetically pleasing to most, but it has serious political implications. Watch ABC News sum up what the new map does to the partisan balance in Pennsylvania.

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