25 Apr 2019 8:16 pm
Federal court: Michigan political maps illegally rigged to 'historical proportions'
Michigan must redraw legislative and congressional districts for the 2020 election because current maps drawn by Republicans represent a political gerrymander “of historical proportions,” a three-judge federal panel ruled Thursday.
The blockbuster ruling — which a legislative leader said Republicans will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — requires Michigan to conduct special state Senate elections for certain seats next year, cutting in half the four-year terms that current lawmakers are now serving.
The “predominate purpose” of the redistricting plan approved by the Michigan Legislature in 2011 “was to subordinate the interests of Democratic voters and entrench Republicans in power,” said the unanimous decision written by U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Clay, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“Therefore, the enacted plan constitutes a durable partisan gerrymander" that violates the First and 14th Amendment rights of plaintiff voters, the court concluded.
The panel is giving the Republican-led House and Senate until Aug. 1 to redraw the maps and get them signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The judges said they want all the parties and processes used in the redistricting process to be made public, including any alternative plans that the Legislature rejects.
If state officials do not finalize new maps by then, the federal court would draw new boundaries itself and could appoint a special master to do so.
[........]
Republicans have denied overt political bias in the map-making process. But email communications by staff entered into evidence in the federal lawsuit included partisan references and commentary on the prospects of maintaining GOP power, including a request to "cram Dem garbage" into certain districts and praise for "giving the finger" to a Democratic lawmaker.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 576663002/
Michigan must redraw legislative and congressional districts for the 2020 election because current maps drawn by Republicans represent a political gerrymander “of historical proportions,” a three-judge federal panel ruled Thursday.
The blockbuster ruling — which a legislative leader said Republicans will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court — requires Michigan to conduct special state Senate elections for certain seats next year, cutting in half the four-year terms that current lawmakers are now serving.
The “predominate purpose” of the redistricting plan approved by the Michigan Legislature in 2011 “was to subordinate the interests of Democratic voters and entrench Republicans in power,” said the unanimous decision written by U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Clay, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“Therefore, the enacted plan constitutes a durable partisan gerrymander" that violates the First and 14th Amendment rights of plaintiff voters, the court concluded.
The panel is giving the Republican-led House and Senate until Aug. 1 to redraw the maps and get them signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The judges said they want all the parties and processes used in the redistricting process to be made public, including any alternative plans that the Legislature rejects.
If state officials do not finalize new maps by then, the federal court would draw new boundaries itself and could appoint a special master to do so.
[........]
Republicans have denied overt political bias in the map-making process. But email communications by staff entered into evidence in the federal lawsuit included partisan references and commentary on the prospects of maintaining GOP power, including a request to "cram Dem garbage" into certain districts and praise for "giving the finger" to a Democratic lawmaker.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 576663002/