Tag Archives: gerrymandering

Dem Rep To Retire Due To GOP Shredding Of District

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 …

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Federal Court Blocks Alabama’s New US House Map

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 …

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Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down New US House Map

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 …

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Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Redistricting

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 …

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NC Court Rules GOP Gerrymandered Districts Are Legal

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 …

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Court Halts NC Election Filings Over Gerrymandering

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 …

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Justice Dept Sues Texas Over Racist Gerrymandering

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 …

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NC Dem Rep To Retire Due To Gerrymandered District

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 …

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Texas GOP Has “Freer Hand” In Drawing New Districts

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 …

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Court Strikes NC’s Gerrymandered US House Maps

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 …

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SCOTUS Sides With GOP On Michigan Gerrymandering

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a challenge to Republican-drawn electoral districts in Michigan that Democrats said were illegally configured to dilute their voting power, an action taken in the aftermath of major rulings by the justices in June prohibiting federal courts from hearing such claims. The Supreme Court’s action voided an order in April by …

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BREAKING: SCOTUS Punts On GOP Gerrymandering

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that partisan election maps drawn by North Carolina Republicans and Maryland Democrats are constitutional despite their one-sided nature. The 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by the court’s other conservatives said federal courts may not intervene to block partisan gerrymandering. The ruling addresses the way election districts are redrawn …

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SCOTUS Okays FUCT, No Other Major Rulings Today

NPR reports: Dirty words make it to the U.S. Supreme Court only occasionally. One of those occasions came Monday, in a case involving a clothing line named “FUCT.” The issue is whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acted unconstitutionally when it refused to grant trademark protection to the brand name. And, for the justices, the immediate problem was how …

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Major SCOTUS Rulings Due: Census, Gerrymandering

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court, approaching the end of its current term, is due to issue rulings in the coming days in major cases including the Trump administration’s bid to add a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 census and efforts by voters to curb the partisan manipulation of electoral district boundaries. The court, which has a 5-4 conservative …

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SCOTUS Rules For Virginia Dems On Gerrymandering

The Hill reports: The Supreme Court has ruled against the Virginia House of Delegates in a racial gerrymandering case that represents a victory for Democrats in the state. In the 5-4 ruling, the justices found that the House didn’t have the standing to appeal a lower court ruling that found that the new district maps must be used ahead of …

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OHIO: ACLU Wins US House Gerrymandering Case

The Associated Press reports: A federal court has ruled Ohio’s congressional map is unconstitutional and has ordered a new one be drawn for the 2020 elections. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati ruled unanimously Friday that district boundaries were manipulated for partisan gain by Republican mapmakers and violate voters’ rights to democratically select their representatives. The …

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Michigan: Court Strikes Down Gerrymandered Districts

Roll Call reports: A three-judge panel on Thursday ruled that Michigan must use new congressional and legislative maps in 2020, potentially setting up a more favorable battlefield for House Democrats, who flipped two seats in the state last fall. The federal court invalidated portions of the existing maps, drawn by the GOP-controlled legislature in 2011, pointing to an unconstitutional partisan …

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TODAY: Supreme Court Hears Gerrymandering Cases

Politico reports: The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases that will test the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering — the practice of drawing voting districts to favor a particular political party or group. The congressional map being challenged in Maryland helped Democrats unseat a 20-year Republican incumbent by adding thousands of Democratic voters in the Washington, D.C. suburbs …

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Court Strikes Down North Carolina’s Voter ID Law

The Hill reports: A judge in North Carolina on Friday tossed out the state’s constitutional amendment requiring a voter ID, citing prevalent gerrymandering in the state’s General Assembly. Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in a ruling late Friday afternoon that the North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members do not truly represent the …

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Supreme Court Punts On Partisan Gerrymandering

The Washington Examiner reports: The U.S. Supreme Court sent back a partisan gerrymandering case from Wisconsin that challenged the legislative map drawn by Wisconsin Republicans to the lower court. With its ruling, the high court tossed out a ruling from a district court and sent the case back. It ruled against Wisconsin Democrats who argued state Republican lawmakers engaged in …

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