The key findings of Democracy Docket’s yearly litigation report.
1/19/2024
This week was full of good news for democracy! In Louisiana, voters are well on their way to a congressional map that will feature more adequate Black representation. There is renewed hope for a fair congressional map in Wisconsin as well, with voters asking a court to reopen a previous lawsuit challenging the Badger State’s current map.
We are also looking back on 2023 as our comprehensive annual litigation report is now out. Lawsuits surrounding democracy and voting rights were largely filed by pro-voting parties, and voters won a significant majority of cases.
A New Congressional Map Is on the Horizon for Louisiana
After more than a year and a half of waiting, Louisiana voters are finally on the doorstep of a congressional map featuring adequate Black representation. On Wednesday, in a 27-11 vote, the Louisiana Senate overwhelmingly advanced a proposed congressional map that would create an additional majority-Black district after being ordered to do so by a court order.
The map, which is supported by Landry, would increase the Black makeup of the 6th Congressional District — stretching from Caddo Parish to East Baton Rouge Parish that is currently held by U.S. Rep Garret Graves (R) — from 23% to 54%, almost certainly taking out the Republican and netting Democrats an additional seat in Congress. The district would span more than 200 miles in length.
Graves has unsurprisingly attacked the map, claiming “there is no consideration where this map is in the best interests of the State of Louisiana.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) also raised alarm about his home state’s proposal for partisan reasons, slamming the map for requiring the “surrender of a Republican seat in Congress.”
Lawmakers had been ordered to redraw the state’s congressional map after a court found the current one illegally diluted Black voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. That decision had been paused for a year until it was reinstated in June 2023, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently set a Jan. 30, 2024 deadline for a new map that the Legislature is now trying to meet.
A special session ordered by Landry to redraw the maps is currently running until Jan. 23. Landry is also asking the Legislature to consider major changes to the state’s Supreme Court map during the special session.
The map now awaits action from the Louisiana House. If the House approves the map, it will head to Landry for his signature. A separate congressional map proposal passed by a House committee Wednesday would feature two districts that are just barely majority-Black, with one district featuring a Black voting-age population less than 50%.
Democracy Was on the Docket in 2023, and Voters Won
Yesterday, Democracy Docket released the 2023 edition of our yearly comprehensive litigation report summarizing the key legal trends in the fight for democracy and voting rights. Although we found a decrease in the amount of relevant lawsuits filed compared to 2022 (which is unsurprising given 2023 was an off-cycle year), 2023 was quite busy for democracy in the courts and we tracked significantly more cases than we did in 2021, the previous off-cycle year.
Throughout 2023 we tracked:
73 new democracy-related lawsuits filed across 31 states.
146 court orders that impacted voters across 34 states.
83 victories for voters across 26 states.
Our findings show that only 30% of new lawsuits filed in 2023 were brought by anti-voting parties, and that Republicans brought the vast majority — 68% — of all cases seeking to restrict voting rights. Of the lawsuits seeking to protect voting rights, the vast majority were filed by nonpartisan organizations like the NAACP — the Democratic Party filed just 8% of the pro-voting lawsuits in 2023.
2023 further escalated Republicans' anti-voting stance, with the GOP increasing its proportion of anti-voting lawsuits filed over the last three years to 68% (up from 52% and 25% in 2022 and 2021 respectively.) Republicans also sought to formally oppose nearly 20% of pro-voting lawsuits through interventions.
Voters also won in the courts in 2023, notching 83 victories compared to just 40 losses. Lawsuits were filed most often in Arizona, Florida and Mississippi, with an average of six to seven lawsuits each, while the remaining states with ligation averaged around two new cases. Surprisingly, 19 states went the entire year without a single democracy-related lawsuit being filed.
We also separated the lawsuits by topic into six main categories:
Renewed Hope for a Fair Congressional Map in Wisconsin
On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters restarted an effort to achieve a fair congressional map in the Badger State, asking the state’s Supreme Court to reopen previous litigation over the matter.
The filing argues that Wisconsin’s congressional map must be redrawn in accordance with the court’s recent ruling striking down the state’s legislative maps. In that case, which was decided in a 4-3 vote by the new majority liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court last December, the court ruled that Wisconsin’s legislative districts were noncontiguous, meaning not touching, in violation of the state constitution.
Specifically, the voters argue that the legislative decision overturned what is known as the “least change” approach to redistricting, which was used in the original decision in the case voters are now trying to renew.
Under the now-defunct principle, the court required the state to make the minimum changes necessary to its previous legislative and congressional maps, and ultimately resulted in the Republican Legislature’s map being chosen as opposed to the Democratic governor’s.
Beyond arguing that the state’s newly clarified criteria is not being met, voters also argue the congressional map “suffers from serious partisan unfairness” and violates the separation of powers principle. Despite Republicans only making up 50% of the statewide vote, 75% of the state’s congressional seats are held by Republicans due to the state's extreme partisan gerrymandering.
The group of voters are hoping that remedial congressional maps are permitted to be submitted, and that the court ultimately selects a new map in time for the 2024 elections.
OPINION: Sounding the Alarm: The 8th Circuit’s Discordant Note on Voting Rights
As we stand at the intersection of history and justice, the echoes of Selma clash with a recent judicial decision that threatens to mute the progress in the fight for voting rights. By Martin Luther King III. Read more ➡️
This morning we released a previously-recorded interview with Daryl Atkinson from Carolina Forward on YouTube in newly available video form. Watch it here and subscribe to our channel here — we are trying to hit 100,000 subscribers.
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