Parties Debate Timeliness of Lawsuit in PA Congressional Map Challenge

By EditorAug 08, 2021
A group of voters in Pennsylvania started the 2020 litigation cycle early by suing in Pennsylvania state court over the state's congressional map. The lawsuit presumes that the state legislature will not have enough time to enact a congressional map given its history of gridlock and a severely shortened mapmaking schedule due to late census redistricting data. It is asking the court to take jurisdiction now to avoid delays in redrawing congressional districts. The case is Carter v. Degraffenreid. Read the complaint here. The lawsuit was filed in April of 2021. This is an update on the status of the…
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Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Voting Laws Against Sec. 2 Voting Rights Challenge in Brnovich

By EditorJul 01, 2021
The U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion today overturning a lower court's decision striking down two Arizona voting laws under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The two laws the court upheld restricted out-of precinct voting and certain ballot collection activities in Arizona. Many experts view this as a severe weakening of the Voting Rights Act's protections for minority voters. The Court did seem to distinguish its interpretation of Section 2 in this case, from how it is applied in minority vote dilution redistricting map cases. Read the opinion here. The two voting laws at issue require…
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Federal Court Rejects Alabama’s Census Lawsuit

By EditorJun 29, 2021
An Alabama federal district court has rejected the State of Alabama's lawsuit requesting that the U.S. Census Bureau refrain from using the differential privacy method to modify individual census responses and move up the release of census data. Read the opinion here. The case in all likelihood will be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court writes: "On March 10, 2021, the State of Alabama, Congressman Robert Aderholt, and two Alabama voters (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) brought this suit against the U.S. Department of Commerce (“the Department”), the U.S. Bureau of the Census (“the Bureau”), and certain federal officials (collectively,…
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MALDEF Challenges Democratic Drawn Illinois State Legislative Map Citing Legislature’s Use of Census Survey Data

By EditorJun 13, 2021
The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund has sued in federal court after the Illinois legislature passed and the governor enacted a state legislative district map drawn using 5 yr census survey data (ACS) in place of the actual population count from the 2020 census. Read the complaint here. The complaint contends that the General Assembly has yet to release the alleged populations of the individual representative and legislative districts in the enacted map. The map was drawn by the legislature using ACS data due to the late release of the traditional population data used for redistricting, which is not anticipated…
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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…
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Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Fast-Track Future Redistricting Litigation

By EditorMay 17, 2021
The Wisconsin state supreme court declined on Friday, to include all redistricting cases in its original jurisdiction. The decision was in response to a petition by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty to fast-track redistricting litigation in the state by having that court conduct a full trial and devise remedies at the outset as opposed to just conducting an appellate review of lower court decisions. Read the court decision here. The court declined any blanket rule for redistricting challenges and instead indicated that it would decide on whether original jurisdiction applies on a case-by-case basis. "as drafted, the procedures…
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Federal Court Dismisses Alabama Challenge to Including Illegal Immigrants in Apportionment Results

By EditorMay 04, 2021
On Monday, a federal district court in Alabama dismissed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Census Bureau's practice of including the "whole number of persons in each state" in the census counts for apportionment. The state of Alabama had filed the challenge to block the inclusion of unlawful immigrants in the apportionment count, but the recently announced apportionment results played a role in the case dismissal. According to Alabama, the Final "2020 Census Residence Criteria and Residence Situations Rule" promulgated by the U.S. Census Bureau on February 8, 2018, provides that foreign nationals living in the U.S. will be counted in…
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State Court Invalidates the Wisconsin Legislature’s Retainer of Two Law Firms for Redistricting Litigation. Read the Opinion

By EditorApr 30, 2021
On Thursday, a Wisconsin Circuit Court voided two contracts state legislative leaders had entered into with two law firms in anticipation of redistricting litigation. The court concluded that both contracts are void because the legislative defendants were not authorized [under the state constitution or the various statutes contemplated in the case] to hire those firms for litigation purposes. Summary judgment was granted and defendants are permanently enjoined from authorizing any further payment on the two contracts for any services performed pursuant to them. Some excerpts from the court decision are below. Click here to read the opinion. Circuit Court: The…
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After Apportionment Results Announced 3 Lawsuits are Filed in 3 States in Anticipation of Redistricting Gridlock

By EditorApr 27, 2021
On Tuesday, three lawsuits were filed in state courts in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania alleging "malapportioned" congressional maps (and statehouse maps in the case of Minnesota). Malapportionment challenges seek to invalidate a map for use in future elections until its population is rebalanced among districts through redistricting. All three suits were filed on behalf of voters in the three states by The National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) chaired by former Attorney General Eric Holder. A copy of each complaint is here: Louisiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. The suits were filed in anticipation of gridlock between the legislature and executive branch, especially…
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The National Urban League (et al.) Agreed to Settle its Lawsuit Seeking to Slowdown the Census Work Plan. Here are the Details of the Agreement.

By EditorApr 24, 2021
On Thursday, the federal district court overseeing litigation challenging the U.S. Census Bureau's handling of 2020 Census data collection and post-processing, issued an order to dismiss the case with detailed stipulations for all parties involved. The lead plaintiff, The National Urban League and various other entities In National Urban League v. Raimondo have agreed to cease litigation in return for regular and robust assurances that 2020 Census data will be processed carefully and accurately. Below is a summary of the stipulations and selected quotes from the court's order. " . . .the parties agree that rather than continuing to dispute…
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