Sep.11

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There Are Multiple Ongoing Legal Fights about Redistricting

Texas' decision to redraw House districts mid-term is leading to lawsuits, but Texas is not the only state with redistricting lawsuits going on at the moment. Here is a rundown of the major ones right now.

• Texas: A number of groups have sued Texas for this year's redistricting, claiming it violates what is left of the Voting Rights Act. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) claims that, by destroying Latino districts, the new maps prevent Latinos from electing their preferred representatives. The first hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1. It is likely that if the case gets to the Supreme Court, the Court will use it to destroy the rest of the VRA.
  
  
• Louisiana: About one-third of the state is Black, so Black leaders think that two of the six House seats should be in districts where a Black candidate stands a good chance of winning. State legislators thought otherwise and after the 2020 census, drew a map with one majority-Black district. That map was used in 2022. Then the 5th Circuit ordered the state to draw a new map or go to trial. In response, legislators drew a new map with two Black districts. A group of white voters sued over that map, saying that it discriminated against whites. Instead of ruling on the case, in June the Supreme Court ordered a new hearing for the fall. Oral arguments Round 2 are scheduled for Oct. 15.
  
  
• North Dakota: After the 2020 census, the North Dakota state legislature decided to draw a map in which Native Americans had one majority district for the state House, down from three in the 2010 map, not because the population had changed much, but because they could. The Native Americans sued on the basis of the VRA. A lower court ordered a new map, but the appeals court said that private citizens could not sue to enforce the VRA, only the DoJ could do that. The final decision on this could determine who can enforce the VRA. If the answer is "only the DoJ," then groups deprived of their rights have no recourse if the DoJ isn't interested in helping them. As is the case with, say, the current DoJ.
  
  
• Mississippi: The case here is similar to the North Dakota one. Here the NAACP sued over legislative maps that were discriminatory. Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) is fighting this in court, saying that the NAACP has no standing to sue over the VRA; only the DoJ can do that. If it is not interested, well, tough luck.
  
  
• Utah: In 2018, the voters passed an initiative creating an independent commission to draw district maps. So what did the legislature do? It repealed the law the voters passed. The courts then ruled that no, the legislature can't just repeal laws passed by the voters. The case is now before the Utah Supreme Court.

All these cases have a common theme: Republican legislatures trying to disenfranchise people they don't like. All of them will almost certainly get to the Supreme Court, eventually. (V)