What Just Happened? Callais Decision Triggers Mutliple Map Redraws

What Just Happened? Callais Decision Triggers Mutliple Map Redraws

By EditorMay 07, 20260 Comments
The Supreme Court has struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais, ruling 6-3 that the state’s creation of a second majority-Black district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The map had been drawn after lower courts found Louisiana’s 2022 plan likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it contained only one majority-Black district in a state where Black residents make up roughly one-third of the population. But the new 2024 map prompted a separate challenge from voters who argued that Louisiana had sorted voters by race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The Court…
Louisiana, Voting Rights Act, , , , , , ,
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Court Ordered CD11 Redraw in New York Sparks High-Stakes Appeals

Court Ordered CD11 Redraw in New York Sparks High-Stakes Appeals

By EditorFeb 22, 2026
Status update: Williams et al. v. Board of Elections of the State of New York is now in a fast-moving appellate phase, with the dispute also reaching the U.S. Supreme Court’s emergency docket. On Jan. 21, 2026, a state trial court ruled that New York’s 11th Congressional District (NY-11) violates the New York Constitution’s anti–vote dilution provision (Art. III, § 4(c)(1)) and directed the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to produce a remedy on a short timetable. Republicans appealed, but an intermediate state appeals court has allowed the case to continue moving toward a redraw, while a sitting member of Congress…
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Court Declines Preliminary Injunction Motion against California’s Prop 50 Congressional Map

Court Declines Preliminary Injunction Motion against California’s Prop 50 Congressional Map

By EditorJan 15, 2026
A 3-judge federal court panel has declined to issue a preliminary injunction preventing the use of California's new congressional map in the 2026 elections, which was approved by 64% of voters via Proposition 50 in a November special election. The legal challenge, brought by the California Republican Party and the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged that the map constituted racial gerrymandering by disproportionately favoring Latino voting power. After a three-day preliminary injunction hearing, however, the court rejected these claims in a 2-1 ruling, with the majority opinion concluding that the map was a "political gerrymander" rather than a racially motivated…
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Indiana Senate Rejects Mid-Cycle Congressional Map Proposal

Indiana Senate Rejects Mid-Cycle Congressional Map Proposal

By EditorDec 11, 2025
The Indiana Republican-led Senate voted down a mid-decade congressional map on Thursday, December 11, 2025, which would have favored the Republican party in the 2026 elections. The map was designed to increase the number of Republican-controlled congressional seats from seven to nine by effectively eliminating Indiana’s two Democratic-held districts by splitting Indianapolis into four districts. The redistricting plan was defeated by a bipartisan majority, with 21 Republican senators joining all 10 Democrats in the chamber to vote against the measure. The vote occurred despite months of intense national pressure, including urging from President Donald Trump to engage in mid-cycle redistricting.…
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Supreme Court Greenlights Texas Congressional Map for 2026

Supreme Court Greenlights Texas Congressional Map for 2026

By EditorDec 06, 2025
Texas may use its new congressional plan for the 2026 elections after the Supreme Court granted the state’s emergency stay on Thursday, Dec. 4. In a short, unsigned order, the Court paused a three-judge district court’s Nov. 18 injunction that had barred the 2025 map and directed Texas back to its 2021 lines. Justice Samuel Alito had entered an administrative stay on Nov. 21 while the Court considered the application. The 5-paragraph order says Texas is likely to succeed because the lower court failed to presume legislative good faith and did not draw an adverse inference from the challengers’ failure…
Case Updates, Redistricting Litigation, , , ,
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Utah Judge Chooses League of Women Voters’ Congressional Map, Rejects Legislature’s Plan

Utah Judge Chooses League of Women Voters’ Congressional Map, Rejects Legislature’s Plan

By EditorNov 14, 2025
A Utah trial court has selected a new congressional plan for the 2026 cycle, rejecting the Legislature’s October “Map C” and adopting the map offered by plaintiffs; the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.” In a 90-page ruling issued just before the court’s November 10 deadline, Third District Judge Dianna M. Gibson found Map C to be an “extreme partisan outlier” drawn to favor Republicans and held that it failed to comply with the neutral criteria required by Utah’s voter-approved Proposition 4. Judge Gibson ordered Plaintiffs’ Map 1 (see below) to take effect in…
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Ohio Redistricting Commission Unanimously Approves New Congressional Map with Implications for the Mid-Decade Push

Ohio Redistricting Commission Unanimously Approves New Congressional Map with Implications for the Mid-Decade Push

By EditorOct 31, 2025
Ohio’s seven-member Redistricting Commission voted unanimously today to approve a new congressional map that will govern the state’s 15 U.S. House districts starting with the 2026 election cycle. The bipartisan deal preserves a GOP advantage and could shift the balance from the current 10-5 split to something closer to 12-3. Commissioners from both parties backed the plan to meet the Oct. 31 constitutional deadline and avoid sending map-drawing back to the legislature. Why a new map was required: under Ohio’s 2018 reform (Article XIX), the 2021 congressional map was adopted without the required bipartisan supermajority, authorizing it to govern only…
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North Carolina Becomes the 3rd State to Enact a Mid-Decade Congressional Map

North Carolina Becomes the 3rd State to Enact a Mid-Decade Congressional Map

By EditorOct 25, 2025
North Carolina has enacted a mid-decade congressional map that analysts say will shift the state’s delegation from 10 - 4 to 11 Republicans and 3 Democrats. GOP lawmakers pushed the plan through both chambers on Wednesday, October 22. Because the North Carolina constitution exempts redistricting bills from the governor’s veto, the map became law the moment the House vote concluded. Local coverage notes the new lines overhaul the coastal 1st District, trimming its Black voting-age share below 40 percent and adding Republican-leaning counties, while shoring up neighboring GOP seats. View a PDF of the map. The mid-cycle redraw comes after…
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The Court’s Second Look: Inside the October 15 Oral Argument in Louisiana v. Callais

The Court’s Second Look: Inside the October 15 Oral Argument in Louisiana v. Callais

By EditorOct 18, 2025
The Supreme Court reheard Louisiana v. Callais on Oct. 15, focusing on whether Louisiana’s intentional creation of a second majority-Black congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments. Louisiana enacted SB 8 in 2024, creating a second majority-Black district after a trial court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the legislature's 2022 congressional map, which consisted of one majority Black district. A three-judge court in the Western District of Louisiana preliminarily enjoined the court-ordered 2024 remedial map on April 30, 2024, as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander after voters sued. The State and intervenor-appellants took a direct appeal to the Supreme Court,…
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New GOP Lawsuit Targets Differential Privacy and Group Quarters Imputation, Claiming Flawed 2020 Census Data

New GOP Lawsuit Targets Differential Privacy and Group Quarters Imputation, Claiming Flawed 2020 Census Data

By EditorOct 11, 2025
A federal lawsuit challenging the underlying data of the 2020 U.S. Census has been filed in a Florida federal court by two young Republican organizations. The plaintiffs in this case, with potential national implications, are the University of South Florida College Republicans and its President, Michael Fusella, individually, along with the Pinellas County Young Republicans and its President, Parisa Mousavi, individually. The addresses associated with these plaintiffs fall within Florida's 14th Congressional District (represented by a Democrat) and the 15th Congressional District (represented by a Republican). The suit names the federal officials responsible for the data collection as defendants: Howard…
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