SCOTUS Reverses Mississippi Legislative Map Ruling

SCOTUS Reverses Mississippi Legislative Map Ruling

By EditorMay 18, 20260 Comments
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a brief order Monday, reversed a lower court's ruling that determined Mississippi lawmakers unlawfully diluted Black voting strength when it redrew the state's legislative districts. The Supreme Court's decision to toss out the ruling in the Mississippi case, along with a similar ruling in North Dakota, is the latest order set off by the justices' 6-3 decision in Callais last month. Earlier this month, the high court similarly tossed a Voting Rights Act (VRA) ruling against Alabama's congressional map that had mandated the state have two majority-Black districts. The Callais ruling, along with subsequent orders…
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Mississippi Redistricting Litigation Update: State Officials File Appeal in Legislative Map Case

Mississippi Redistricting Litigation Update: State Officials File Appeal in Legislative Map Case

By EditorJul 13, 2025
Both the State defendants and the Mississippi Republican Executive Committee filed direct appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 3, 2025, after a federal district court invalidated the State's House and Senate maps on Voting Rights Act grounds. The case is Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP v. State Board of Election Commissioners. The NAACP suit against Mississippi’s 2022 state legislative maps began with a complaint in December 2022 alleging racial gerrymandering and Voting Rights Act violations. A three-judge federal panel denied the State’s motion to dismiss in April 2023, oversaw discovery through that autumn, and held a bench…
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Federal Court Rules Mississippi Legislative Maps Must be Redrawn.

Federal Court Rules Mississippi Legislative Maps Must be Redrawn.

By EditorJul 11, 2024
Mississippi's 2022 state legislative districts must be redrawn after a three-judge federal panel declared three districts violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case is Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP v. State Board of Election Commissioners. Read the opinion and order here. While plaintiffs in this case were suing for an additional four senate districts and three house districts, the court concluded that only two senate and one house district met the requirements for a remedy under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act: "We find that three of the illustrative senate and house districts reflect minority…
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16 States Join in Alabama’s Challenge to the Census Bureau’s Data Privacy Program

By EditorApr 14, 2021
On Monday, 16 states joined Alabama in deriding the U.S. Census Bureau's newly adapted data privacy policy (aka differential privacy) which uses statistical algorithms to distort raw census data before it is released to states and the public. The states who jointly filed as amici in Alabama's lawsuit against the Bureau are Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Utah. The amicus brief filed on behalf of these states lists three "major harms" caused by differential privacy. 1) local redistricting cannot be conducted with any reasonable accuracy; 2)…
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