On October 26, 2017, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina issued an order appointing Nate Persily as a special master "to assist the Court in further evaluating and, if necessary, redrawing" the revised maps. That opportunity might allow incumbents to createdistricts that are particularly favorable to them on personal grounds. [334], The plaintiffs in the case proposed a three-part test for determining whether illegal partisan gerrymandering has occurred in a state. The redistricting process itself can often be changed only by a ballot initiative, which can take years and a lot of peoples time and money to organize and pass. Well get to that later. On December 12, 2011, the court dismissed the case. On February 10, 2012, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that the state House maps must be redrawn, "with instructions for the trial court to reconsider the extent to which mildly larger population deviations would satisfy other state redistricting criteria, to reconsider the partisan impact and incumbent pairings of a court-ordered plan, and to recognize a district protecting Hispanic voters in the Clovis area under the Voting Rights Act." The legislature proved unable to pass its own congressional redistricting plan. Take Oregons new congressional maps. The legislature made technical corrections to the new congressional and state legislative district maps on November 7, 2011. On January 25, 2012, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck the map down, ruling that "the lines violated state constitutional requirements of compactness and adherence to the integrity of political subdivisions." Redistricting, as its called, is a hot-button issue across the country and every 10 years, it can change how a state votes. I don't think we'll have any difficulty meeting the burdens the court asked us to meet." They broke up heavily Democratic Portland carved up into three districts since 2011 into four districts, forking outward into rural areas in the state. On December 2, 2019, the court ruled unanimously that elections in 2020 would take place under the remedial maps. Eleven states leave the mapmaking to an outside panel. [205], Following the 2010 United States Census, Oklahoma neither gained nor lost congressional seats. [72][73][74], At the time of the 2010 redistricting cycle, Republicans controlled the state Senate and Democrats held the state House and the governorship. They also do the same for the districts of state legislators. Denniston summarized their argument as follows:[305], On February 1, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States denied Republicans' request for a stay, meaning that the newly drawn map would be used for Virginia's June 2016 primary election and November 2016 general election. The court ruled 2-1 on the matter, with Judges Kenneth Ripple and Barbara Crabb forming the majority. [112][35], Following the 2010 United States Census, Missouri lost one congressional seat. Ripple wrote the following in the court's majority opinion:[334][335], Judge William Griesbach dissented and wrote the following in his dissent:[334], The court declined to order a remedy when it issued its ruling. Districts must be contiguous. Consequently, the state's courts were asked to intervene and adopt a new congressional map. Plaintiffs' ambitious theory suffers from three fatal flaws. This proved unnecessary, however, as a revised congressional map passed the state legislature on December 14, 2011, and was signed into law the next day.[202][35]. They lost. If you're having On April 11, 2012, the state legislature approved a congressional redistricting plan, which was signed into law by the governor on April 23, 2012. [86][87], On February 10, 2015, the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Congress may pass federal laws regulating congressional elections that automatically displace ("preempt") any contrary state statutes, or enact its own regulations concerning those aspects of elections that states may not have addressed. In 2012, as President Barack Obama sailed to re-election, Democrats received 1.4 million more votes than Republicans for the House of Representatives. The majority opinion was penned by Justice Debra Todd and read, in part, as follows:[227], Chief Justice Thomas Saylor penned a dissenting opinion that read, in part, as follows:[228], Justice Sallie Mundy joined Saylor's dissent and penned a separate dissent. Roberts was joined in the majority opinion by Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, and Kagan. The governor is assisted by an advisory commission that is appointed solely by the governor. What is Redistricting and Why Should We Care? | ACLU [214][215][218], On January 22, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an order striking down the state's congressional district map, finding that the map "clearly, plainly and palpably violates the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." On May 3, 2019, a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled unanimously that Ohio's congressional district plan constituted an illegal partisan gerrymander. First, the Framers provided a check on state power within the text of the Elections Clause, but it is a political oneaction by Congress. The court stopped short of deeming the district lines unconstitutional, however. Spartans Will. Two separate suits were filed in Denver District Court. The court ruled unanimously against the challengers, finding that they lacked standing to appeal. It is right and relevant to review past performance in drawing districts." The high court ruled 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts penning the majority opinion, joined by Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. The plaintiffs here failed to prove up the minimal standing to even bring a lawsuit. Opponents threatened to subject the map to a veto referendum. [219][220][221][222][223], On January 26, 2018, the state supreme court issued an order appointing Nate Persily, a Stanford University law professor, "to assist the court in adopting, if necessary, a remedial congressional redistricting plan." 8 C. 10 D. 15 E. 20. On September 19, 2011, the Senate approved a congressional redistricting plan, but the legislature adjourned before the map could be taken up for a vote in the House. The court ordered that this plan be adopted by the legislature and signed into law by the governor by November 1, 2017. On October 30, 2017, Republican lawmakers filed a motion objecting to the appointment of Persily as special master; they argued that there was ample time for the state legislature to make any court-ordered amendments to the maps before the 2018 candidate filing period. For that reason, we cannot have confidence that the court adequately grappled with the interests on both sides of the remedial question before us. Role of the States in Regulating Federal Elections "The redistricting that followed the 2010 census suddenly became less fair as partisan mapmakers used newly available information, technology and software to draw maps that greatly favor one party while respecting the equal population requirement. "Every state must follow some minimal rules set in federal law. They argued that the primary election should now be allowed to go forward on June 14 under the newly drawn plan of the lower court. On October 17, 2011, Idaho's redistricting commission approved a new congressional district map. Say 64 percent of the state votes Red and 36 percent votes Blue. Governors and the Redistricting Process - Eagleton Center on the This new map fails to respond to the courts order by continuing to split communities of interest, packing voters in urban areas, and manipulating the district lines to provide Republicans with an unfair partisan advantage." [141][142][143][144], On October 26, 2017, the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina issued an order appointing Nate Persily as a special master "to assist the Court in further evaluating and, if necessary, redrawing" the revised maps. My research studies how to measure whether a redistricting map is fair, and how to quantify how much it favors one party over another. On March 24, 2017, state attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse the district court's ruling. Kennedy wrote the following in the court's majority opinion:[315][316], Meanwhile, the Supreme Court affirmed the district court's ruling in the case of the remaining challenged district (District 75), arguing that the lower court's ruling was consistent with Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, a case decided by the high court in 2015. According to The New York Times, the high court's order made it more likely that the 2018 election would be held using the existing district plans. David Lewis (R), chair of the House redistricting committee, said, "We do not believe it is appropriate given the court's order in this case for these committees to consider race when drawing districts." Further details about this case are provided below. Under Section 5, certain states and jurisdictions were required to submit to the federal government proposed changes in election laws prior to enactment to ensure that the alterations were not discriminatory. The commission submitted its final recommendations to the state legislature on January 8, 2013. Beyond that, each state is free to set up its own rules and its own processes for redistricting. 2011 was the first year in which a GIS online platform was used during the redistricting process. [322][323][324][325][326], On January 22, 2019, the district court issued an order directing Grofman to finalize the district plan for the House of Delegates selected by the court. D. must be approved by the highest court in each state. The ruling did not apply to the remedial districts adopted in 2013. On February 9, 2012, the state legislature approved a state legislative redistricting plan via joint resolution. E) has little appreciable effect on who wins or loses congressional races. [35], On November 1, 2011, the United States Department of Justice precleared these plans. On June 8, 2011, Governor Robert Bentley (R) signed the map into law. However, because redistricting directly affects This will be the fourth map in six cycles, and I think that is so confusing for voters and has a major negative impact on voters. On December 5, 2011, the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the lower court's decision. The challengers submit that the District Court erred further when it considered the legislature's racial motive only to the extent that the challengers identified deviations from traditional redistricting criteria that were attributable to race and not to some other factor. An image of the remedial map can be accessed here. The breakdown of states that won and lost new seats as a result of congressional reapportionment are as follows:[2], Michael McDonald, of George Mason University, used census data to determine which state legislative districts were most underpopulated and most overpopulated as of the 2010 census.