Watch: House Judiciary Committee Hearing on  Voting Discrimination

Watch: House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Voting Discrimination

Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - 10:00am Location: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary heard testimony regarding evidence of current and ongoing voting discrimination. Witnesses included: Mr. Derrick Johnson ,President and CEO, NAACP Ms. Vanita Gupta ,President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights J. Christian Adams, President and General Counsel, Public Interest Legal Foundation Mr. Dale Ho, Director, Voting Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union Ms. Myrna Perez, Director, Voting Rights and Elections Program, Brennan Center for Justice Ms. Natalie A. Landreth, Senior Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund https://youtu.be/VoRQ6-CD7Yc?t=1837
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Listen to Supreme Court Oral Argument in the Maryland Partisan Gerrymandering Case

Listen to Supreme Court Oral Argument in the Maryland Partisan Gerrymandering Case

On March 26, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Benesik v. Lamone, a partisan gerrymandering case from Maryland. Click here for background on this case and its companion case, Rucho v. Common Cause (North Carolina). For a pre oral symposium hosted by SCOTUSBlog, click here. Click here to listen to oral argument for Rucho v. Common Cause.
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SCOTUSblog Symposium in Anticipation of Oral Arguments in Partisan Gerrymandering Cases

. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument in two key partisan gerrymandering cases on March 26; one from Maryland (Benesik v. Lamone) and one from North Carolina (Rucho v. Common Cause). In preparation for these arguments, the editors at SCOTUSblog hosted this pre-argument symposium featuring a group of experts on redistricting law. Here is a quick summary of each contributor's essay. You can click to read each article in full. . Justin Levitt: Suggests that the unconstitutionality of excessive partisan gerrymandering follows from the fact that there is widespread agreement (in the legal community) that any State law that…
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Listen to the NCSL Webinar on Recent Supreme Court Gerrymandering Decisions

Listen to the NCSL Webinar on Recent Supreme Court Gerrymandering Decisions

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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NPR and Scotusblog Recap Oral Arguments in Racial Gerrymandering Case

Wash. DC - NPR's Nina Totenberg recaps Supreme Court oral arguments in , Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Board of Elections and McCrory v. Harris;  the racial gerrymandering claims arising from the Virginia state legislative and the North Carolina congressional map, which were heard on Monday.  Click below for audio. Read Scotusblog's analysis here.    
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NPR Talks with Law Profs About Racial Gerrymandering in the Supreme Court

Wash. DC - NPR's Nina Totenberg discusses the North Carolina racial gerrymandering claim to be heard today before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Totenberg chats with Stanford law professor Nathaniel Persily and Richard Hasen of University of California Irvine about the two congressional districts in dispute and how the court has dealt with similar claims in the past. Click below.      
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Packing Minorities Into Districts. When Is That Ever Okay?

Packing Minorities Into Districts. When Is That Ever Okay?

Washington DC - The Supreme Court will tackle that question today as it hears oral arguments in two redistricting cases.  Both cases are alleged racial gerrymander claims; one orginating from Virginia's state legislative map and the other from North Carolina's congressional district map.  (more…)
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Court Rules 28 of 170 N.C. Legislative Districts are Racial Gerrymanders

Court Rules 28 of 170 N.C. Legislative Districts are Racial Gerrymanders

North Carolina - Last Thursday, a three-judge U.S. District Court panel ruled that 28 of the Republican-drawn districts for the N.C. legislature were indeed unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The Republican practice of making "safe" minority districts even "safer" to comply with the Voting Rights Act was completely disavowed by the court.  In short, the Voting Rights Act does not mandate districts in which minorities are already successful at electing their preferred candidates, to be packed with even more minority voters - something that North Carolina insisted was the case. The districts will stand for the 2016 election however.  The court has ordered a…
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Fourth Circuit: N.C. Voter ID Law Targets Blacks with “Surgical Precision”

Fourth Circuit: N.C. Voter ID Law Targets Blacks with “Surgical Precision”

North Carolina - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has overturned the lower court ruling that had upheld North Carolina's comprehensive voter identification requirements.  The panel commented that this law targeted African-American voters with "surgical precision." http://www.nbcnews.com/widget/video-embed/735007299516 Read the court opinion here. Read more in the Washington Post. Read more in the New York Times.
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