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[Redistricting Roundup]
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The State of Play
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Forty of the forty-four states with more than one congressional district have finalized new congressional maps as of March 29, 2022. Only Florida, Missouri, and New Hampshire have not finished the redistricting process, while the congressional map passed by the legislature in Maryland is being redrawn under court order. Likewise, 44 states have finalized new legislative maps, with only Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Vermont still to go.
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All told, 67 cases around the country have challenged newly passed congressional or legislative maps as racially discriminatory or partisan gerrymanders — or both.
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Featured Pieces
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Redistricting Obstruction in Ohio
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Redistricting shenanigans continue in Ohio, with the Ohio Redistricting Commission rejecting a map prepared by two outside experts the commission itself hired, instead voting to approve a fourth legislative map that makes small tweaks to a map previously struck down by the state supreme court. The commission's two Democrats voted against the map, claiming that it was yet another gerrymander engineered to favor Republicans. They were joined in opposition by Auditor Keith Farber (R), who has claimed that a map designed to reflect
the state's partisan makeup would be a gerrymander favoring Democrats. |
Voters and groups in litigation challenging the commission’s plans have renewed a motion that would order commission and its members to explain why the court should not hold them in contempt for failing to pass maps that comply with the state constitution. The petitioners argue in their motion that “Because the majority party does not wish to loosen its grip on power, the majority of Commissioners have once again refused to comply with this Court’s orders that the Commission comply with Article XI. The Commission cannot possibly believe in good faith that either the process used to create the Fourth Plan, or the cosmetic changes made to the unconstitutional Third Plan, will pass constitutional muster.” The court has ordered a response from the commissioners by April 4. |
The impact of Ohio’s gerrymandered legislative maps goes far beyond the courtroom, however; in a piece for the Columbus Dispatch, Sam Gresham, chair of Common Cause Ohio and a petitioner in Ohio Organizing Collaborative v. Ohio Redistricting Commission, details the effect of gerrymandering on Black Ohioans. Gresham wrote, “The commission is undermining the will of Ohio voters while marginalizing communities of color. Their tactics may seem more subtle than the poll tests my father faced in Mississippi under
Jim Crow, but they have the same outcome: robbing Black Americans of the political power that is their due. The commission’s actions must not be allowed to stand.” |
You can read more about the Brennan Center’s work in Ohio Organizing Collaborative v. Ohio Redistricting Commission here. |
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VIRTUAL EVENT SERIES: Drawing the Line: How Redistricting Impacts Latino Communities
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Hispanic Federation and the Brennan Center are co-hosting a series of panels that will provide an update on the redistricting process in North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Georgia. Panelists will discuss the impact that the new maps will have on the Latino community, upcoming elections, and representation at all levels.
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- Texas: Thursday, April 7 | 1 p.m. ET
- Georgia: Thursday, April 14 | 11 a.m. ET
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You can register for any of these events here. |
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Featured Maps
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Last week, a Maryland state court struck down the congressional plan passed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature, saying that the plan was an “extreme partisan gerrymander” in violation of the Maryland Constitution. The enacted plan included seven safe
Democratic districts and one Republican-leaning competitive district on the Eastern Shore (MD-1) that had appendages stretching into the suburbs of Baltimore and Washington D.C. |
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After the order to redraw the map, members of the General Assembly quickly unveiled and passed a revised plan that made several districts more compact, including MD-1. Republican legislators argue that the map still needlessly divides counties between congressional districts and that they were not consulted by Democratic leaders. |
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Redistricting in the News
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In an unsigned shadow docket opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out legislative maps adopted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, holding that the state court had not properly analyzed whether the Voting Rights Act required creation of an additional Black majority district. The court’s order, which Justice Sotomayor called “unprecedented” in her dissent, was seen by many as another sign that what remains of the Voting Rights Act might be in grave danger. As the Brennan Center’s Michael Li put it, “The Voting Rights Act — as the court had narrowed it through the years — already was becoming less potent of a tool. Now that tool may be gone altogether.” |
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has followed through with his threat to veto the congressional map passed by Florida’s legislature. The Governor’s office has repeatedly asserted that a plurality-Black district in northern Florida violates the U.S. Constitution because it was drawn with race as the “predominant factor.” Black advocates and other critics disagree with this reasoning and argue that DeSantis is simply trying to diminish the influence of Black voters. (Strangely, DeSantis also argues that the district violates the state constitution because it diminishes Black voters’ ability to elect the candidate of their choice.) A special session to consider new map proposals will now begin on April 19, with Republican legislative leaders saying their ultimate goal is to produce a map that DeSantis would sign.
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The Ohio Supreme Court has set a schedule for the litigation over Ohio’s congressional map that would stretch past the May 3 primary, essentially guaranteeing that candidates will run in the districts under the current plan. A panel of federal judges has not yet
ruled on whether it will move the May 3 primary for all elections to account for delays in the passage of legislative maps. |
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The Louisiana Legislature voted to override Gov. John Bel Edwards’s (D) veto of the congressional plan - the first override of a gubernatorial veto of any kind in over 30 years. Edwards vetoed the plan because it did not add a second Black-majority district, saying
“The Legislature should immediately begin the work of drawing a map that ensures Black voices can be properly heard in the voting booth. It can be done and it should be done.” The override means the plan’s validity now will be decided in the courts. Since the override, two lawsuits have already been filed alleging the maps discriminate against Black voters. |
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The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s redistricting panel violated the equal protection clause of the state constitution when it created a senate district that paired a house district in the city of Anchorage with a district based in the more rural Eagle River area (Alaska state senate districts each consist of two state house districts), which the court claimed gave undue political influence to Eagle River residents. |
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New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has released his own proposal for the state’s congressional plan after vowing to veto the plan passed by the legislature, which he argued made NH-2 noncompetitive. Sununu’s plan would keep the district competitive, but the population deviates by over 1,400 people between the two districts, which some say will invite malapportionment litigation.
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Missouri’s congressional plan is still stuck in the state legislature as the state senate unanimously rejected a request from house members to create a conference committee to negotiate over the plan the senate passed last week. Meanwhile, the filing deadline for congressional candidates has already passed and two lawsuits are already requesting state court judges to intervene.
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You can find earlier editions of our Redistricting Roundup here.
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