Tag Archives: gerrymandering

Courthouse News reports: Citing the states’ long histories of suppressing the right to vote among their black voters, an organization headed by former Attorney General Eric Holder sued three states in the Deep South, accusing them of using gerrymandering to dilute the strength of their black voters. In Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, local lawyers filed lawsuits in federal court against …

The Associated Press reports: The Michigan Court of Appeals ordered Thursday that an anti-political gerrymandering measure be placed on the November ballot, rejecting opponents’ contention that the proposed constitutional amendment is too expansive and does not list all sections that would be abrogated. The conservative group that sued vowed to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, which will have the …

Talking Points Memo reports: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in a tweet Wednesday linked the Trump administration’s controversial push to add a citizenship question to the Census to an approach to drawing districts that would boost Republican power. Rubio is not the first conservative to suggest that data gathered by asking about citizenship on the decennial Census could be used to …

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request from Pennsylvania Republican legislative leaders to block the implementation of a redrawn congressional map that creates more parity between the political parties in the state. The practical impact is the 2018 elections in the state are likely to be held with a map much more favorable to …

Mother Jones reports: The Trump administration’s controversial pick to run the 2020 census has withdrawn from consideration to be deputy director of the US Census Bureau, according to sources close to the bureau. In November, Politico reported that the administration planned put Thomas Brunell, a political science professor who has defended Republican redistricting efforts in more than a dozen states, …

Think Progress reports: On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected an effort by Republican leaders in Pennsylvania to restore a Republican gerrymander that has allowed Republicans to dominate the state’s congressional delegation even in years when Democrats won the statewide popular vote. Last month, the state supreme court ordered new maps drawn for the 2018 election. Now that the Supreme Court …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Republican legislative leaders have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order that lawmakers redraw the state’s congressional district maps, arguing that the justices are intruding on their turf. “In short, the question in this case is whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is the Pennsylvania ‘Legislature’ under the federal Constitution, and the …

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Mike Stack just announced on Twitter that the state Supreme Court has ruled 4-3 that the state’s US House district maps are unconstitutional, giving the state legislature under a month to redraw the maps. The Times weighed in on the pending ruling last week: If Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court rules that the state’s congressional map must be redrawn, …

The Austin Statesman reports: The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review lower-court rulings that ordered Texas to redraw 11 political districts found to be discriminatory. Texas officials appealed the rulings, which concluded that two congressional districts and nine Texas House districts were improperly drawn along racial lines in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Acting on the …

Raleigh’s NBC affiliate reports: A panel of three federal judges has ordered the state to redraw its congressional map again, forbidding North Carolina from holding this year’s scheduled U.S. House elections until it does. In doing so the court ruled that state legislators, seeking to address a racial gerrymander the court complained about with a previous map, put too much …

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court declared Monday that it will consider whether gerrymandered election maps favoring one political party over another violate the Constitution, a potentially fundamental change in the way American elections are conducted. The justices regularly are called to invalidate state electoral maps that have been illegally drawn to reduce the influence of racial minorities by …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that North Carolina lawmakers relied too heavily on race when drawing congressional districts in 2011, affirming a lower-court ruling that forced legislators to create new maps last year. The racial gerrymanders that left Republicans representing 10 of 13 North Carolina congressional districts were meant to dilute the power …

“I’m deeply flattered by all of the people who have approached me about running for Senate, but my mission right now is to bring sanity to Washington through redistricting reform like we passed here in California. Gerrymandering has completely broken our political system and I believe my best platform to help repair it is from the outside, by campaigning for …

NBC News reports: Federal judges found more problems in Texas’ voting rights laws, ruling that Republicans racially gerrymandered some congressional districts to weaken the growing electoral power of minorities, who former President Barack Obama set out to protect at the ballot box before leaving office. The ruling late Friday by a three-judge panel in San Antonio gave Democrats hope of …

AL.com reports: A three-judge federal court panel has blocked Alabama from using in another election 12 legislative districts challenged as unconstitutional by black political groups. The districts are part of the district map drawn and approved by the Republican-led Alabama Legislature after the 2010 Census and were used in the 2014 election. The judges ruled for the plaintiffs in 12 …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday put a court-ordered legislative redistricting and 2017 special election on hold while it reviews Republican legislators’ appeal in an ongoing lawsuit. A lower federal court ruled months ago that the current legislative districts are an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and it ordered the General Assembly to draw new districts …

This seems to be the first real indication of the president’s plans after his term ends. Politico reports: As Democrats aim to capitalize on this year’s Republican turmoil and start building back their own decimated bench, former Attorney General Eric Holder will chair a new umbrella group focused on redistricting reform—with the aim of taking on the gerrymandering that’s left …