New York county redraws voting map after lawsuit claims racial gerrymandering
New York’s Nassau County agreed on Thursday to redraw its voting map after a lawsuit claimed its political boundaries disenfranchised residents of color. Once details are approved by the court, the county will instate a new map including six districts in which Black, Latin and Asian residents constitute the majority of eligible voters. In the [...]
US appeals court rules against tool used to enforce Voting Rights Act
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Monday ruled against a tool often used to enforce voter protections, finding that private groups and individuals are not permitted to bring lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which prohibits race-based voter suppression. The decision stems from a lawsuit brought by [...]
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, [...]
Louisiana legislature overturns governor veto of congressional districting map
The Louisiana legislature Wednesday voted to override Governor John Bel Edwards’s 2021 veto of a congressional redistricting bill. In response, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LFD), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Louisiana, and law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Warton & Garrison filed a lawsuit. This was the first time in 31 years [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Thursday filed a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act against Galveston County, Texas, challenging a redistricting plan that allegedly discriminates against Black and Hispanic voters. The redistricting plan was adopted by the county on November 12, 2021 after the data from the 2020 Census was released. In the complaint, [...]
Texas voters and grassroots political organization Voto Latino filed a lawsuit Monday in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas against Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Secretary of State John Scott, challenging Texas Senate Bill 6. The groups alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act. Senate Bill 6 sets forth new congressional [...]
Three federal judges in California have ruled against a presidential executive order aiming to exclude people in the US illegally from the 2020 census count and subsequent congressional district reapportionment. A similar lawsuit filed by the state of New York is already before the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs that brought the suit consisted of individuals, [...]
Supreme Court grants expedited review on census exclusion of undocumented immigrants
The US Supreme Court issued an order Friday granting an accelerated argument schedule for a case challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from census counts for allocating congressional seats. At the behest of President Donald Trump, the Census Bureau began exploring ways to determine the number of undocumented immigrants in each state [...]
Federal judge blocks Trump administration bid to end census early
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction on Thursday preventing the Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce from ending the national census count on September 30. The order requires the Census Bureau to continue the Census count until the original deadline of October 31. A group of [...]
Trump administration appeals order blocking exclusion of undocumented immigrants from census
The Trump administration gave notice on Wednesday that it intends to appeal to the Supreme Court a ruling from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. In a unanimous decision last week, a three-judge panel blocked the president’s order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census data to reapportion congressional seats. A [...]
