Wisconsin Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin doubted the viability of a further challenge, saying, "I think it is quite notable that [the plaintiffs] put together a failry large, well-funded litigation team, had a four-day trial, and the Supreme Court unanimously held 9-0 they did not prove the basis of standing. That allows a political party to choose its voters, rather than the voters choosing their representatives. Democrats won 50.6 percent of the statewide congressional vote, but only four out of 13 House seats. At the roots of American democracy, most of the assemblies in the 13 colonies and in the original founding states used the apportionment method to assign seats to counties and townships, so they did not need to draw districts. The Florida Supreme Court approved the state House map, but rejected the state Senate map. However, the Court did not have occasion to address what constitutes regulation by a state "Legislature" for purposes of the Elections Clause until its 2015 decision in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.1 Footnote 576 U.S. ___, No. The plaintiffs petitioned the Supreme Court to expedite the case. On November 21, 2016, the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin struck down the district map for the Wisconsin State Assembly, finding in favor of the plaintiffs, a group of state Democrats. Republicans have complete control over the redistricting process in 20 states, Democrats in 10 states. On February 21, 2018, opponents filed another suit in state court challenging the legality of the remedial Wake County district maps (House Districts 36, 37, 40, and 41). Sponsored by the Institute of Public Policy and Social Research, the goal of Eguias research is to help draw maps that provide no disproportionate advantage to any political party. He has presented findings his research at Harvard University and at the NYU School of Law, and recently was a co-panelist with Michigans Secretary of State regarding the upcoming redistricting drawing in 2021. For these 11 districts, the high court remanded the case to the district court for reconsideration. 5) What is the Independent Citizen Commission, what is it doing andhow is your researchinforming it? Finally, no district has more than a one-person difference in population from any other district, and, therefore, the Remedial Plan achieves the constitutional guarantee of one person, one vote. In addition, Reynolds ordered that proposed district maps be submitted to the court by November 18, 2015. Matt Walter, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, denounced the suits: "The cynical lawsuits filed today by Holder and the Democrats are crass attempts to rally the left-wing base and to elect more Democrats through litigation, instead of running winning campaigns on policies and ideas that voters actually want. On October 3, 2011, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission released draft congressional and state legislative district maps. Associate Justice Samuel Alito penned the court's majority opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. [165][166][168], On August 19 and 20, 2017, the General Assembly of North Carolina released drafts of revised district maps for the state House and Senate, respectively. Meanwhile, Republican Representative Patrick McHenry dismissed these criticisms: "Eric Holder and (former President) Barack Obama have raised a lot of money for this outcome, and theyve pursued a really aggressive legal strategy for their partisan outcomes, and right now theyre calling it partisan gerrymandering, but what theyre seeking is partisan gerrymandering for the left. "[242][243][244], On February 27, 2018, Turzai and Scarnati petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States for a stay of the state supreme court's order pending appeal. The plaintiffs appealed this decision to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ordered the trial court to reconsider the case. By federal law, redistricting must occur following a census for two reasons. Relying on the Supreme Courts decision this Term in the. This vote also split along party lines. "[198], The court ordered state lawmakers to draft remedial maps by September 18, 2019, for use in the 2020 election cycle. The court also found that 27 of the 34 challenged districts violated the plaintiffs' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by diluting the impact of their votes. "[231][232], On February 13, 2018, Governor Tom Wolf (D) announced that he would not submit the remedial congressional district plan drafted by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R) and House Speaker Mike Turzai (R) to the state supreme court. This is how the U.S. House of Representatives, and most state legislatures, including Michigan, work. [127], According to The Almanac of American Politics, following the 2012 election, the first to take place under the new maps, Democrats won four of the state's 13 congressional seats, although they "won a majority of the state's votes in House races. On February 6, 2018, the Supreme Court issued a partial stay against the district court's order. [The map] centers [District 3] in Hampton Roads. "[137][138], On June 5, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous per curiam ruling affirming a U.S. District Court decision that 28 state legislative district maps had been subject to an illegal racial gerrymander. He said the following:[163], On June 5, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a unanimous per curiam ruling affirming the decision of the district court, which had earlier determined that the aforementioned 28 districts had been subject to an illegal racial gerrymander. This politically motivated decision, which would effectively undo the will of millions of North Carolinians just days after they cast their ballots, is a gross overreach that blatantly disregards the constitutional guarantee for voters to duly elect their legislators to biennial terms. In a statement, Holder said, "The creation of additional districts in which African Americans have the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates in each of these states will be an important step toward making the voting power of African Americans more equal and moving us closer to the ideals of representative democracy." Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch voted to stay the district court order.
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