mid-decade redistricting

South Carolina Governor Calls Special Session on Redistricting After Senate Blocks Extension

By EditorMay 14, 2026

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster called a special session Thursday evening for state lawmakers to tackle redistricting ahead of the midterm elections, announcing on X: "I have issued an Executive Order calling the General Assembly back for an extra legislative session to address the state budget and congressional districts." The session is set to begin on Friday morning. McMaster initially chose not to set a special session but changed course after the Republican-led state Senate rejected a measure to extend its current session to take up a redrawn map, despite pressure from President Donald Trump, who posted on Truth Social,…

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Georgia Governor Calls for June Special Session for Mid-Decade Redistricting

By EditorMay 14, 2026

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called the General Assembly into a special session beginning June 17 to consider new congressional, state Senate, and state House district maps for the 2028 election cycle, according to the governor’s May 13 proclamation. The session is being called in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which affected how race may be considered in redistricting. The proposed maps are not expected to govern this year’s midterm elections because the proclamation specifies the 2028 cycle. Kemp noted that it was too late to change the maps before the upcoming…

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Missouri State Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in 3 Challenges to 2025 Congressional Map

By EditorMay 12, 2026

The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday morning in three consolidated challenges to the state's new congressional map, known as the Missouri First Map, which Gov. Mike Kehoe signed into law following a special legislative session in September 2025. The map, drawn as part of President Trump's broader mid-decade redistricting push to secure additional Republican congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, splits parts of Kansas City into three districts and adds Republican-leaning areas to the district of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, one of the state's two Democratic House members. The Republican-led legislature passed the map last fall, targeting one…

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With Election Clock Ticking, Virginia Democrats File Emergency SCOTUS Appeal

By EditorMay 11, 2026

Virginia Democrats on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive the voter-approved redistricting amendment struck down last week by the Supreme Court of Virginia, escalating the fight over the state's congressional map to the nation's highest court. In an emergency application filed with Chief Justice John Roberts, attorneys representing House Speaker Don Scott, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, and the commonwealth of Virginia asked the court to pause the state ruling while the appeal moves forward. Democrats are asking the court to immediately freeze the Virginia ruling and keep the new congressional maps…

Virginiacaseupdates, lawindepth, mid-decade redistricting, policyindepth, Virginia

Tennessee Enacts New Congressional Map, Eliminating State’s Only Majority-Black District

By EditorMay 10, 2026

Last week's Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais dramatically altered the legal landscape for redistricting across the South, and Tennessee wasted no time responding. In a 6-3 decision, the Court struck down Louisiana's majority-Black congressional district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, substantially narrowing the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act for challenging district maps. Critically, the Court raised the evidentiary bar for plaintiffs, requiring them to prove discriminatory intent tied to present-day conditions and to offer alternative maps that also satisfy a state's legitimate redistricting goals, making it significantly harder to bring successful Voting Rights Act…

Tennesseemid-decade redistricting, policyindepth, Tennessee

Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Democratic Redistricting Plan in McDougle v. Virginia

By EditorMay 09, 2026

The Supreme Court of Virginia on May 8th, struck down a voter-approved constitutional amendment that would have authorized Democrats to redraw the state's congressional map mid-decade, voiding the results of the April 21 special election in which Virginia voters had narrowly approved the measure. In a 4-3 decision in McDougle v. Virginia, the court ruled that the General Assembly violated procedural requirements under Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution by advancing the amendment to the ballot, declaring that the constitutional violation "incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy." The core procedural flaw, as the…

Virginiacaseupdates, lawindepth, mid-decade redistricting, Virginia

What Just Happened? Callais Decision Triggers Mutliple Map Redraws

By EditorMay 07, 2026

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…

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Virginia’s On Again, Off Again Redistricting Map Referendum

By EditorFeb 22, 2026

On Feb. 19, 2026, Chief Judge Jack Hurley of the Tazewell County Circuit Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking state and local election officials from moving forward with an April 21 statewide referendum that would let voters decide whether the General Assembly may adopt a new, mid-decade congressional map. The order, sought by the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and two GOP members of Congress, is effective until March 18 and could derail the vote because early in-person voting is scheduled to begin March 6. Judge Hurley agreed with the plaintiffs that the referendum’s timing…

Virginiamid-decade redistricting, Virginia

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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SCOTUS Denies Emergency Request to Block California Map Over Racial Gerrymandering Claims

By EditorFeb 04, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for California to implement a new congressional map for the upcoming midterm elections, denying an emergency request from state Republicans to block its use. Enacted through the voter-approved Proposition 50, which passed by a two-to-one margin in November, the plan is projected to help Democrats secure five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Although the California GOP and the Trump administration argued the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, a lower federal court previously ruled that the evidence of racial motivation was "exceptionally weak" compared to the "overwhelming" evidence of…

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