Redistricting Functions

Census Bureau Dissolves Three Outside Advisory Panels for 2030 Planning and Redistricting

By EditorAug 14, 2025

The U.S. Census Bureau disbanded three advisory committees this past June: the Census Scientific Advisory Committee (CSAC), the 2030 Census Advisory Committee, and the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. Members of these committees serve without pay (aside from travel reimbursement), a point reflected in CSAC’s charter and Federal Register notices. The 2030 advisory committee itself was created and filled less than a year earlier (23 members named in March 2024), underscoring how abruptly the change arrived. These panels review census design choices, methods, and communications plans during the decennial’s multi-year build-out. Census.gov’s pages describe the committees’…

Census Data and Geographydataindepth, News, U.S. Census Bureau

A Brief History of Mid-Decade Redistricting in Texas

By EditorAug 06, 2025

A Brief History of Mid-Decade Redistricting in Texas Texas’s current mid-decade congressional redistricting effort has historical precedent. In 2003, Texas legislators undertook a similar mid-cycle redistricting that reshaped the state’s political landscape. Republicans, who had won control of both legislative chambers in the 2002 elections, launched an effort to replace the court-drawn congressional map from 2001. The legislature’s 2003 map significantly shifted the partisan composition of the Texas delegation, ultimately leading to a net gain of several Republican seats in Congress. The 2003 process drew national attention when Democratic legislators dramatically fled the state in protest, attempting to deny the…

Enacting a Redistricting Map, Texasmid-decade redistricting, policyindepth, Texas, texas redistricting

U.S. Supreme Court Seeks Fresh Briefs on Louisiana Map, Weighing the Voting Rights Act Against Equal-Protection Limits

By EditorAug 04, 2025

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned order on Aug. 1 asking for supplemental briefs in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that claims Louisiana’s new six-district congressional map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Louisiana and a coalition of Black voters who support the 2024 map must file by Aug. 27; the “non-African American” voters challenging the plan have until Sept. 17, with replies due Oct. 3. The justices already heard oral argument in March but held off any decision in the case, signaling they wanted additional input before deciding whether the second majority-Black district created last year should stand. The…

Redistricting Race RulesLatest, lawindepth, louisiana

Texas Redistricting Update: July 2025

By EditorJul 29, 2025

Governor Greg Abbott convened a 30-day special legislative session on July 21, instructing lawmakers to redraw the state’s 38 U.S. House districts. The call follows a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stating that four districts anchored in Houston and Fort Worth were "coalition districts," and may have been drawn “along strict racial lines,” (a.k.a racial gerrymanders), potentially violating the 14th Amendment. Lawmakers now have until roughly mid-August to craft new boundaries that satisfy equal-population and federal law requirements. Ongoing litigation over the 2021 mapsWhile legislators work on new boundaries, a three-judge federal panel in El Paso is…

Enacting a Redistricting Map, Redistricting Litigation, Texasmid-decade redistricting, racial gerrymandering, Texas, texas redistricting, Voting Rights Act

Census Bureau Releases Initial Plan for Conducting 2030 Census

By EditorJul 24, 2025

Press Release JULY 23, 2025 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released the first version of the 2030 Census Operational Plan, along with an interactive tool for exploring it. This plan documents the initial, high-level design for the next census, outlining the breadth of work needed to conduct and support a quality population and housing count. Future iterations of the plan will describe the work in more detail. Read the 2030 Census Operational Plan. The plan, “Baseline 1,” provides a snapshot of big-picture activities the Census Bureau will undertake to conduct the 2030 Census: Establish where to count. Identify all the addresses where people could…

Census Data and Geographycensus 2030, dataindepth, News, U.S. Census Bureau

A Maryland Democrat Proposes Countering Out-of-Cycle Partisan Redistricting

By EditorJul 24, 2025

Maryland House of Delegates Majority Leader, Del. David Moon, a Montgomery County Democrat, is drafting legislation designed to counter partisan congressional redistricting efforts in other states. Moon's proposal would mandate that if any other state deviates from the norm of redrawing congressional districts only once every 10 years, Maryland would be required to do the same. This move comes as President Donald Trump is pushing states like Texas to redraw their maps outside the typical post-Census schedule, with Texas Governor Greg Abbott having called a special 30-day legislative session to consider redistricting, among other issues. Moon's "basic idea" is that…

Maryland, Partisan GerrymanderingMaryland, mid-decade redistricting

Florida High Court Affirms 2022 Congressional Map, Eliminating Former Majority-Black District

By EditorJul 18, 2025

The Florida Supreme Court’s 5-1 decision on Thursday keeps Gov. Ron DeSantis’ congressional map intact, which splits a Jacksonville-to-Tallahassee coalition of Black voters and cements the GOP’s current 20-8 edge in the U.S. House delegation. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz called the eliminated Black district in the 2022 map a “race-based gerrymander” that violated equal-protection principles and said lawmakers had a “superior obligation” to follow federal, not state, law when race and redistricting collide. The lone dissent warned the opinion could render the amendment’s non-diminishment clause “practically ineffective.” The decision signals that Florida’s newly constituted high court…

Race in Redistrictingcaseupdates, Florida

Eighth Circuit Leaves North Dakota Tribes and Section 2 enforcement, waiting on the Supreme Court

By EditorJul 08, 2025

This week, a divided Eighth Circuit has refused to rehear Spirit Lake Tribe v. Howe, leaving intact its May 2025 ruling that bars private plaintiffs from suing under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The order preserves a decision that eliminated a key enforcement pathway for the seven states within the circuit and sets the stage for potential U.S. Supreme Court involvement. The case began when the Spirit Lake Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians challenged North Dakota’s 2021 legislative map, arguing that splitting their reservations diluted Native voting power. A U.S. District Court Judge…

Case Updates, Voting Rights ActNews, North Dakota

Ohio’s Continuing Redistricting Saga: Here’s an Update on the Congressional Map

By EditorJul 07, 2025

Redistricting in Ohio has been a complex, multifaceted, litigious marvel of line-drawing politics. Here is a timeline and some procedural background about the ongoing struggle with Ohio's congressional redistricting, including what's next. In Ohio, congressional redistricting follows a multi-step process. Initially, the state legislature can adopt a new congressional district map with a three-fifths supermajority vote, comprising at least half of the minority party members. If the legislature fails to act, a seven-member commission takes over, composed of elected officials and legislative appointees. If the commission also fails, the legislature gets a second chance, requiring a three-fifths vote with one-third…

Ohio, Partisan GerrymanderingLatest, Ohio, ohio redistricting commission, policyindepth

Virginia Beach Court Voids Single-Member District Plan on a Technicality

By EditorJul 02, 2025

A Virginia Beach Circuit Court has struck down the city’s 10-district, “10-1” council-and-mayor voting plan, because the city passed the rule change by simple ordinance rather than securing the charter change the state constitution requires. The court's ruling leaves the 2022 and 2024 election outcomes untouched, but bars use of the district map going forward unless the General Assembly (which passed a charter-amendment bill in 2024, but was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin) or city voters cure the defect. The City Council has already scheduled a November referendum asking residents whether to keep the 10 single-member districts or revert to…

Local RedistrictingVirginia