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…
Case Updates, Casedocs, LAW, NEWS, Redistricting, ,
Read More

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…
Case Updates, Casedocs, NEWS, Redistricting, Redistricting Prep, , , ,
Read More

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…
Case Updates, Casedocs, Redistricting, Redistricting Litigation, ,
Read More

Federal District Court Issues Dismissal of Census Bureau Lawsuit with Detailed Stipulations for Both Parties

By EditorApr 23, 2021
The U.S. Census Bureau has reached an agreement with the various plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to ensure census data accuracy by asking the court to enforce extended timelines for processing 2020 census data. The lawsuit was originally filed to enjoin the bureau from ending its counting operations one month before its previously scheduled deadline of October 31, 2020. Further requests by plaintiffs sought to block the bureau from attempting to modify apportionment data to only include citizens and ensure that data accuracy did not suffer as the bureau sought to meet statutory deadlines for reporting data earlier in…
Case Updates, Casedocs, Census Law, Redistricting, , , , ,
Read More

Federal Judge Orders Census Count to Continue Through Oct 31

By EditorSep 25, 2020
A U.S. District Judge in the Northern District of California has issued a preliminary injunction that enjoins the U.S. Census Bureau from ending its counting operations on September 30. The order explains that the coalition of plaintiffs - headed by the National Urban League - are likely to succeed in the lawsuit and that shortening the timeframes for data collection and processing by half, necessitate the preliminary injunction. The administration is expected to appeal. Read the order here. While the Census Bureau had originally requested Congress to extend the statutory deadlines for apportionment data delivery to the President and redistricting…
Casedocs, Census Law, DATA and TECHNOLOGY, NEWS, Redistricting, , , , ,
Read More