Free Republic

The Louisiana Legislature adjourned from its special session on Friday, passing new congressional districts as required by a federal court order. Lawmakers also sent to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk for a possible signature a bill that would close the state's open primary system. Senate Bill 8, sponsored by Sen. Glen Womack, R-Madisonville, and preferred by Landry, would transform Republican U.S. Rep. Garret Graves’ 6th Congressional District into a second Black-majority district. The House favored it 86-16 and the Senate agreed to the lower chamber's changes 27-11. Lawmakers also passed an appropriation bill for SB8 that would provide $1.4 million to...

The Feb. 13 special election in New York’s 3rd congressional district matters. Special elections can set the tone for a general election, create momentum for the winning party and provide an opportunity to test messages and ideas on actual voters. They also test voter enthusiasm and a party’s ability to get out the vote in a low-turnout situation. It matters especially for Republicans, as it could bolster their razor-thin majority in Congress. This is a fair fight to replace George Santos, and both parties have put forward formidable candidates. On the Republican side, Mazi Melesa Pilip is a state representative...

As anticipated, the Ohio Supreme Court on Sept. 7 formally dismissed two legal challenges to the state's post-2020 Census congressional district map, fixing them into place for the 2024 election cycle. The dismissals were briefly noted without comment in a four-page ‘Case Announcements’ update from the Ohio Supreme Court issued two days after plaintiffs in Neiman v LaRose (pdf) and League of Women Voters of Ohio v Ohio Redistricting Commission (pdf) petitioned to drop their lawsuits. The inconspicuous conclusions end more than 18 months of post-2020 Census litigation in Ohio, although dozens of similar redistricting lawsuits are proceeding or pending...

Several Tennessee groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional and state redistricting maps that went into effect in 2022. The complaint states the maps are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders that violate the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by intentionally diluting the votes of Black voters and voters of other colors by dividing Nashville and Davidson County into three congressional districts. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Alabama’s new Congressional district map diminished the impact of Black voters, which violates the Voting Rights Act, specifically Article 2, which prohibits voting procedures that discriminate based on race....

Alabama seems to have defied an order from the Supreme Court by passing a redistricting map that only included one majority black district instead of two on Friday. The Supreme Court agreed with a lower-level federal court in its order for the state to include two districts that had largely black populations among its voting-aged residents. But the map that was agreed upon by both chambers included one majority black district and one district that was 40% black. Black districts largely vote Democrat. The move was criticized by state Democrats, who are in the minority in both chambers, and the...

Nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted its ratings toward the GOP in 10 House races, all of which lie in districts President Biden carried by at least 8 points in 2020. The announcement marks the latest warning sign for Democrats that their support is declining in critical blue-state districts, including in Long Island, N.Y., suburban Portland and California.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A lawsuit filed Tuesday as lawmakers get set to draw Alabama's new congressional map is challenging the state's current congressional districts, saying they are “racially gerrymandered” and limit Black voters’ influence in all but one congressional district. Alabama currently has one majority-minority district represented by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, the lone Democrat and only Black member of Alabama’s congressional district. The lawsuit argues Alabama should have a congressional map that would “afford African Americans an opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in at least two districts.”.... “Alabama’s current Congressional redistricting plan, enacted in 2011 is...

Virginia's Redistricting Commission voted on Monday to redraw the commonwealth's congressional and state legislative districts from scratch, marking a victory for anti-gerrymandering advocates. The 16-person commission, made up of eight Virginia lawmakers and eight citizens, voted 12-4 and planned to enlist a bipartisan group to help outline the state's new political maps. The development comes after voters approved a constitutional amendment last fall that moved the power in the redrawing process from the state legislature to the commission. Voters previously voiced concerns that earlier maps have been heavily influenced by politics.

The democrats encourage aliens to illegally enter the U.S. by inviting them to come in, bring women and children, don't worry about the dangers of illegally crossing borders, dangerous rivers, deserts, etc., it's all worth it to reach the land of milk and honey. They promise them jobs, welfare, foodstamps, free medical care, subsidized housing, free education and promise them free legal help and advice to ward off deportation. They harbor them in sanctuary cities where state and local governments will protect them from law enforcement and from the federal immigration authorities, even if they commit crimes. And the democrats...

Legislative power brokers across the country have long designed district lines in back-room deals that entrenched their control for years, if not decades. But now, Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are carrying out a power grab in an unusually public fashion: They are seeking to make Republicans a permanent minority by essentially writing gerrymandering into the State Constitution. The New Jersey plan comes amid a national reckoning over the consequences of gerrymandering and has been met by fierce opposition across the political landscape — and not just from Republicans and nonpartisan watchdog groups.

But would politically neutral redistricting in itself yield significantly more competitive and less polarized politics? Would it ensure greater political diversity and increase the legitimacy of Congress? The answer is no. Regardless of how you slice the map, the vast majority of Americans will live in so-called landslide districts, in which either Republicans or Democrats win by overwhelming margins. Today’s voters rarely split their tickets and are self-sorting such that the median county in the 2016 presidential race was won by more than 40 percentage points — triple the median margins in the 1990s. Step 1 is to elect House...

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will decide in its next term a case brought by Democratic voters in Wisconsin who argue that state legislative districts are unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans. In a separate decision, the court put on hold a lower court order that the state draw new boundaries. The action was announced in a list of orders that the court issued Monday. Arguments would likely be heard in the fall

A little-noticed lawsuit brought by a Maryland man challenging the state's contorted congressional districts will be heard this fall by the Supreme Court — where it has the potential to open a new line of constitutional attack for opponents of gerrymandering. Stephen M. Shapiro, a former federal worker from Bethesda, argues that the political map drawn by state Democrats after the 2010 census violated the First Amendment rights of Republicans by placing them in districts in which they were in the minority, marginalizing them based solely on their political views. The issue before the Supreme Court is whether a lower...

A group of wealthy liberal donors who helped bankroll the Center for American Progress and other major advocacy groups on the left is developing a new big-money strategy that could boost state-level Democratic candidates and mobilize core party voters. The plan, being crafted in private by a group of about 100 donors that includes billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros and San Francisco venture capitalist Rob McKay, seeks to give Democrats a stronger hand in the redrawing of district lines for state legislatures and the U.S. House.

Republicans are the party of the rich, right? It's a label that has stuck for decades, and you're hearing it again as Democrats complain about GOP opposition to raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits. But in Congress, the wealthiest among us are more likely to be represented by a Democrat than a Republican. Of the 10 richest House districts, only two have Republican congressmen. Democrats claim the top six, sprinkled along the East and West coasts. Most are in overwhelmingly Democratic states like New York and California.

Officials in Virginia and Ohio, once reliably red states that have gone for President Obama in the past two elections, have discussed the idea of apportioning their electoral votes by congressional district — a system some say would more accurately reflect the will of the states’ voters but one that others dismiss as an unnecessary political ploy. The talks come as demographic shifts have pushed the GOP’s reliable bastions to more exurban and rural areas, allowing Democrats to win such states by sufficiently running up their margins in a comparatively small number of densely-populated cities and counties. To that end,...

The Department of Justice pre-cleared North Carolina’s redrawn Congressional map today, solidifying this cycle’s most detrimental gerrymander for House Democrats. Four Democrats — Reps. Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, Heath Shuler and Brad Miller — are in more danger of losing their seat next year under the new lines.

Utah State Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis said Wednesday the party will take the state to court unless Republicans back away from a controversial new congressional map. "If the outrageous insult to the people of Utah stands that is the Republican power bosses' map, the Democratic Party will be suing, no question about it," Dabakis told the Deseret News. A memo from the Utah Democratic Lawyers Council obtained by the News states "Utah could become a prime candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court to establish its new judicial test for partisan gerrymandering," depending on the outcome of redistricting.

Some California schools are turning away middle and high school students who have not received a required whooping cough vaccine while others are defying a law passed last year after a historic spike in cases of the potentially fatal disease. The law approved last September initially required all students entering grades seven through 12 to get vaccinated by the start of the 2011-2012 school year. Lawmakers passed a 30-day extension this summer as districts worried many students wouldn't meet the deadline.

WASHINGTON – States are getting new leeway in tallying their prisoners in the 2010 census — a move that could reshape the political map, increasing urban population numbers while reducing the figures for rural voting districts where inmates are incarcerated. The Census Bureau said this week it would release data on prison populations to states when they redraw legislative boundaries next year. Previously, the agency provided the breakdowns on group quarters, like prisons, after states finished their high-stakes redistricting. That resulted in districts with prisons getting extra representation in their legislatures, despite laws in some states that say a prison...