Search Results for: redistricting

Proponents of fair congressional maps breathed a sigh of relief this past June when the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Allen v. Milligan. The decision was in many ways unremarkable: a conventional application of the Court’s precedents involving Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Enacted to protect the voting rights of [...]

A three-judge panel in Alabama chose a new congressional district map on Thursday in response to a lawsuit arguing that the Alabama legislature’s congressional map was racially gerrymandered. The decision comes only a few weeks after the US Supreme Court rejected a petition from the state government, which sought to appeal a court order prohibiting [...]

In its recent Moore v. Harper decision, the US Supreme Court rejected the so-called independent state legislature theory. That theory holds that state legislatures are insulated from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review under the Elections Clause. The Elections Clause specifically provides: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, [...]

A federal district court on Monday denied the Alabama Secretary of State’s emergency motion to allow Alabama to hold elections with congressional maps which have been called “racially gerrymandered.” Alabama’s Secretary of State Wes Allen made an emergency motion for stay pending a direct appeal to the US Supreme Court. In denying the emergency motion, the [...]

The Supreme Court of Ohio granted motions to dismiss two challenges to congressional maps on Thursday, upholding the use of maps that have previously been deemed unconstitutional. Both motions were filed on Tuesday by petitioners contending that the maps were drawn with unfair partisan bias. The court granted one dismissal in Neiman v. LaRose, and another [...]

A US District Court Northern District of Alabama three judge panel Tuesday tossed out the Alabama legislature’s proposed congressional map, holding that the current map is still racially gerrymandered and likely violates Section Two of the Voting Rights Act. This is the second time this panel has tossed out a proposed Alabama congressional map during [...]

Florida Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh declared Florida’s most recent congressional map unconstitutional on Saturday because it weakens Black voters’ ability to elect representatives of their choice. The case is in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit, in and for Leon County, Florida, a state court in northern Florida. Marsh ruled that the [...]

JP Leskovich went to high school in Ohio and returned to the state in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote. He is a 2L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and JURIST’s US Bureau Chief.    Ohio voters on Tuesday strongly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have limited direct democracy in the [...]

Governor of Alabama Kay Ivey approved a new congressional map Friday, passed by the Alabama legislature during a special session, which designates only one majority-Black district in the state. The approval is in defiance of the US Supreme Court ruling in Allen v. Milligan, which stated that the previous congressional map with only one majority-Black [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Moore v. Harper that the “independent legislature” election theory, which has been the legal foundation for many of the recent Republican-led efforts to change election administration law and overturn 2020 election results, is an invalid interpretation of the Election Clause of the Constitution. The theory stipulates that state [...]