Tag Archives: gerrymandering

The New York Times reports: Since January, judges in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Ohio have found that Republican legislators illegally drew those states’ congressional maps along racial or partisan lines, or that a trial very likely would conclude that they did. But a shift in election law philosophy at the Supreme Court, combined with a new aggressiveness among Republicans who …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to jump into the state’s congressional redistricting fight, leaving in place a lower-court decision that would clear the way for using a controversial plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature. Justices, in a 4-1 ruling, rejected a request by voting-rights groups to stay a decision by the …

The Associated Press reports: Kansas’ highest court on Wednesday upheld a Republican redistricting law that makes it harder for the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation to win reelection in a big victory for the GOP. The state Supreme Court declined for now to declare that overly partisan gerrymandering violates the Kansas Constitution. The ruling sets district boundaries less …

Florida Politics reports: Secretary of State Laurel Lee’s Office appealed a court decision which found Florida’s new congressional map was unconstitutional. The replacement cartography only redraws districts in North Florida, most notably restoring Florida’s 5th Congressional District into a configuration similar to how it has looked for five years. That makes it a seat with a 49% Black population and …

Reuters reports: Republicans are vowing to spend record amounts in key state supreme court races this fall, seeking to take advantage of a favorable national political environment to elect conservative judges at the state level amid deep political divisions. A string of decisions throwing out Republican-drawn congressional maps in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania has intensified the party’s determination to …

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Ohio Supreme Court once again rejected legislative maps that Republicans drew to disproportionately favor their candidates, sending mapmakers back to the drawing board and Ohio’s primary into massive uncertainty. For the second time, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, joined with three Democratic justices to reject state House and Senate approved by Republicans on the …

Raleigh’s NBC News affiliate reports: The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday night voted to strike down new voting maps Republicans passed in November. The high court issued a 4-3 decision split along ideological lines. The voting maps passed in November strongly favored the GOP, with the party slated to win 10 or 11 of the 14 U.S. House seats …

The New York Daily News reports: Gov. Hochul signed New York’s new congressional and legislative maps into law on Thursday, capping a chaotic process and two days of bitter feuding in Albany, where the ruling Democrats drew new district lines over Republican opposition. Hochul inked her signature to bills codifying the maps after lawmakers approved legislative redistricting earlier in the …

The Texas Tribune reports: In a sworn declaration submitted as part of an ongoing federal court challenge, a senior Republican state senator with redistricting experience said he believes his party violated federal voting laws when it drew new boundaries for state Senate District 10 in the Fort Worth area. “Having participated in the 2011 and 2013 Senate Select Redistricting Committee …

The Associated Press reports: The Republicans who control the Kansas Legislature are close to passing a congressional redistricting plan that marries an eastern Kansas community proud of its “woke” politics to Trump-loving small towns and farms five hours west by car on the expansive and stark plains. Democratic legislators and some local officials see the worst kind of gerrymandering in …

Politico reports: Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, a 32-year veteran of Congress, will retire at the end of this year, after Tennessee Republicans shredded his Nashville-based seat into three pieces in redistricting. He is the 29th House Democrat to leave the chamber to retire or seek higher office during this Congress. “No one tried harder to keep our city whole,” Cooper …

The Birmingham News reports: The Alabama Legislature’s redistricting plan for 2022 will not take effect for congressional races after a panel of three federal court judges found the map dilutes the voting power of Black residents and blocked the proposal. Two separate federal lawsuits were filed against the redistricting map on claims that it violated the Voting Rights Act by …

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state’s congressional district map Friday, saying Republicans violated the Ohio Constitution by drawing districts that favored GOP candidates. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was, once again, a key vote in the 4-3 decision to reject the map, which could have given Republicans as much as a 12-3 …

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Ohio Supreme Court struck down GOP-drawn state House and Senate district maps as unconstitutional gerrymandering in a 4-3 decision Wednesday, sending the maps back to the drawing board. Advocates of redistricting reform hailed the decision as a resounding victory for Ohio voters who overwhelmingly approved changes to the state constitution to limit partisan line-drawing in …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: North Carolina’s new political districts do not violate the state constitution, a panel of three judges ruled unanimously Tuesday. The GOP-drawn maps would give Republicans a built-in advantage in future elections — but none of the reasons why challengers said the maps are unconstitutional stand up to legal scrutiny, the judges ruled. In other …

Roll Call reports: A North Carolina state appeals court stopped the process for candidates to file for next year’s congressional and state legislative elections using new district lines, the state board of elections said Monday. According to state law, candidate filing was to begin Monday and run through Dec. 17 in advance of the state’s March 8 primary. After Texas …

The Texas Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its weight into the legal fight over Texas’ newly drawn maps for Congress and the state House. The Biden administration on Monday announced it has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas, joining what’s expected to be a protracted fight over the political boundaries the state will use …

Politico reports: Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), a longtime leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, won’t seek reelection next year — another blow to Democrats’ efforts to keep control of the House after the midterm elections. Butterfield, first elected to an Eastern North Carolina congressional seat in 2004, saw his district undergo significant changes in redistricting. Under its current configuration, now-President …

The Texas Tribune reports: The 2020 census captured a Texas that does not exist in its halls of power: a diverse state that is growing almost exclusively because of people of color and where the Hispanic and white populations are nearly equal in size. But when the Texas Legislature convenes Monday to do the work of incorporating a decade’s worth …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: North Carolina’s 2020 elections for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives must happen under new maps, a panel of judges ruled Monday evening, saying that the current Republican-drawn maps are unfair to many voters. The legislature will get to redraw the lines, the court ruled, instead of having an outside expert step in …