Minnesota Judicial Panel Releases State’s New Congressional and Legislative Maps for the Decade

Minnesota Judicial Panel Releases State’s New Congressional and Legislative Maps for the Decade

On Tuesday Feb. 15, a 5-member Minnesota Judicial Branch Special Redistricting Panel formed in 2021, adopted a congressional and state legislative district map. The court released its final orders for both the congressional and legislative map and explained the panel's approach to redrawing the maps. That approach was to make as few changes as possible to satisfy legal requirements since courts must perform redistricting in a restrained manner as opposed to legislatures who have more "political authority." The court further explained "We are not positioned to draw entirely new congressional districts, as the legislature could choose to do. Rather, we…
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Update: Minnesota Court Issues Order to Appoint Special Redistricting Panel if Legislature Fails to Redistrict

Update: Minnesota Court Issues Order to Appoint Special Redistricting Panel if Legislature Fails to Redistrict

On March 22, the Minnesota Supreme Court granted the plaintiff's request in Wattson v. Simon to appoint a special redistricting panel for redistricting in the state in anticipation of the legislature failing to enact maps in time for upcoming elections. Read the original complaint. Read the court's order. Learn more. While the court agreed to appoint a panel at some point in the future, it delayed doing so and stayed all further proceedings until the legislature has had time to enact maps. This year's regular session of the Minnesota legislature is scheduled to end in late May. The court also…
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Minnesota Lawsuit Asks Court to Get a Jump on State Redistricting

The delayed census redistricting data delivery schedule has put many states in a bind as they run up against state constitutional and statutory deadlines for redistricting. In Minnesota, the deadline for drawing a congressional map is in February of 2022, but the state has a decades-long history of not accomplishing the task. A new lawsuit filed in state court seeks to get ahead of the problem. According to the lawsuit filed on the 19th, the situation is dire. Population projections indicate that the state may lose a congressional seat in the upcoming apportionment scheduled to be released later this Spring.…
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