[EL] More breaking news: MD redistricting decision, including adjustments to census data

[Justin Levitt]

And the pre-Christmas news keeps coming.

A three-judge federal court just granted summary judgment, upholding the 
Maryland congressional districts against one challenge (there's an 
additional challenge <http://redistricting.lls.edu/cases.php#MD> in 
federal court, and two others in state court).  The court rejected 
claims of racial gerrymandering and of violations of the Voting Rights 
Act, with an interesting section on /Gingles/' compactness 
requirements.  It also joined the chorus of lower courts rejecting 
partisan gerrymandering claims for failure to present a justiciable 
standard likely to satisfy Justice Kennedy.  And perhaps even more 
significant, the unanimous and thorough opinion -- by Judge Niemeyer of 
the 4th Circuit, and Judges Williams and Titus from the Maryland 
District Court -- upheld the constitutionality of Maryland's "No 
Representation Without Population Act", adjusting census data in the 
redistricting process to account for Maryland's incarcerated population.

The opinion (and prior court documents) is here 
<http://redistricting.lls.edu/cases.php#MD>.  The lead opinion addresses 
the No Representation Without Population Act from pp. 8-20.

Thanks to Howard Gorrell for the tip.

Justin

On 12/23/2011 2:20 PM, Gaddie, Ronald K. wrote:
> The US Department of Justice has given preclearance approval to the 
> legislative maps for the Georgia General Assembly and congressional 
> delegation.  For the first time, Georgia  successfully navigated 
> legislative and congressional redistricting preclearance on the first 
> try.
>
> http://www.ajc.com/news/gov-s-office-justice-1271640.html
> "Gov.'s office: Justice Department approves new Ga. political maps for 
> Congress, state races"
>
>
> Ronald Keith Gaddie
> Professor of Political Science
> Editor, /Social Science Quarterly/
> The University of Oklahoma
> 455 West Lindsey Street, Room 222
> Norman, OK  73019-2001
> Phone 405-325-4989
> Fax 405-325-0718
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election

-- 
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA  90015
213-736-7417
justin.levitt at lls.edu
ssrn.com/author=698321

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20111223/0474f5f4/attachment.html>