[EL] ELB News and Commentary 6/20/18

[Rick Hasen]

“Judge rules for lawmakers: No primary elections for NC judges”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99668>
Posted on June 19, 2018 7:51 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99668> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

News and Observer:<http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article213439224.html>

In the first year in decades that all judicial races will be partisan races, North Carolina will not have primary elections that allow the political parties to winnow the names of candidates who will appear on ballots this fall.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles notified attorneys for the Democratic Party and North Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday that she plans to rule for the legislators in a lawsuit filed late last year.
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Posted in judicial elections<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=19>


Wisconsin: “Democrats seek to bring redistricting case back to Supreme Court before 2020 elections”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99665>
Posted on June 19, 2018 7:45 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99665> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:<https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/18/democrats-seek-bring-case-back-supreme-court-before-2020-elections/710154002/>

Wisconsin Republicans are claiming victory with Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to send a lawsuit over the state’s legislative boundaries back to a lower court without addressing whether the map is constitutionally drawn.

But Democrats say the ruling doesn’t put the legal fight to bed as Republicans suggest, and vow to clear any hurdle to get the nation’s highest court to answer the question of whether Wisconsin’s districts are so partisan that they violate the Constitution before the next round of map drawing.

“The discouraging thing is just the delay,” Bill Whitford, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the districts, said in a phone interview with reporters. “We have a road map forward … I don’t think we’ll have any difficulty meeting the burdens the court asked us to meet.”
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“The Best Way to Fix Gerrymandering Is to Make It Useless”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99663>
Posted on June 19, 2018 7:42 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99663> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Lee Drutman<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/opinion/gerrymandering-districts-multimember.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront> NYT oped:

Reformers could certainly try again next year, perhaps finding new approaches to avoid the shoals of standing. But a better approach would be to revamp the antiquated electoral institution that makes elaborate districting schemes both possible and so profitable in the first place — the single-member district. Increase the size of districts (and use ranked-choice voting to improve proportionality) and the predictability of results declines, making gerrymandering far less effective.

It’s a truism across nations — the larger the size of the electoral district, the less effort expanded on gerrymandering. This is a primary reason that the United States is the world leader in gerrymandering: It is one of only a handful of advanced democracies<http://www.fairvote.org/research_electoralsystems_world> that still use single-member plurality-winner districts.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>
Today’s Must-Read: Jessica Huseman of ProPublica: “How the Case for Voter Fraud Was Tested — and Utterly Failed”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99660>
Posted on June 19, 2018 1:02 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99660> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

This is a very well done look<https://www.propublica.org/article/kris-kobach-voter-fraud-kansas-trial> at the first real court case testing the claims of the Fraudulent Fraud Squad, including von Spakovsky and Kobach.

Enjoy.
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Posted in fraudulent fraud squad<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=8>, The Voting Wars<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=60>


“Latino Residents File Suit to Replace Islip Town’s System of Electing Council Members”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99656>
Posted on June 19, 2018 12:42 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99656> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Press release via email:

A lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that the at-large voting system of the Town of Islip violates the Voting Rights Act by systematically preventing members of Islip’s Latino  community from electing candidates of their choice to the Islip Town Board, despite the strength that the Latino community would have as a voting bloc under a system of single-member districts. Attorneys from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, the Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington, and Newman Ferrara LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ana Flores, Rene Flores, María Magdalena Hernández, Magali Roman, Make the Road New York, and New York Communities for Change against the Town of Islip, the Islip Town Board, and the Suffolk County Board of Elections.



“As a long-time resident of Islip, I’ve seen time and again how the Town Board has treated the Latino community like second-class citizens,” said María Magdalena Hernández, plaintiff in the case and member of Make the Road New York. “They have repeatedly failed to provide interpretation and translation to Spanish-speaking residents like me. They have ignored our requests for cleaner streets and safer roads. And they make us feel unwelcome. Until our community can elect a representative of our own, the Town will never listen to us.”



The plaintiffs allege that the Town’s at-large voting system should be replaced with single-member districts because, under the current system, the Town Board has been unresponsive to the needs of the Latino community and repeatedly failed to afford Islip’s Latino residents the same rights and services that it provides to more affluent white communities. For example:



● The Department of Public Works ignores requests to repair potholes, traffic lights, and stop signs in Latino neighborhoods

● The Town fails to provide proper public services (such as street cleaning, garbage pickup and snowplowing) on an ongoing basis in the Latino community, while ensuring that white communities are given priority access to these same services

● The Town has repeatedly failed to provide translation and interpretation services to Spanish-speaking residents

● Latino residents are often met with hostility or indifference when they ask local law enforcement and municipal services for help



“The Town handles complaints from our neighborhoods differently than it handles complaints from other parts of Islip,” said Magali Roman, another plaintiff in the case. “When people in the Latino community call to report streets that need to be repaired, the Town does not respond to us. When these problems are not fixed, accidents happen, people’s cars break down. They might miss work and lose their jobs, or they might be hurt. These problems start out small, but because the Town neglects them, they grow and have big consequences.”



Although Latinos make up approximately one-third of the Town’s population, no Latino has ever been elected to the Islip Town Board. Further, in the last three decades, only one of the 30 residences belonging to elected Town Board members was located in the Latino community; the single residence located in a Latino community belonged to a Republican Town Board member who owned three residences. The plaintiffs allege that Islip’s Latino residents are a politically cohesive community that has demonstrated the ability to elect candidates of their choice when an at-large system does not dilute their votes, and has succeeded in electing Latino candidates to county and state Legislature seats.



Currently, all Islip residents vote for each Town Board position, meaning that the same majority can control the outcome of the race for each Town Board seat. As a result, Islip’s Latino community has little chance of electing any candidate of its choice. The plaintiffs argue that the current at-large system should be replaced by a single-member system, in which the Town would be divided into separate districts with one council member representing each district, as is the case in Long Island towns such as Hempstead, North Hempstead and Brookhaven.



In support of their argument for a district-based system, the plaintiffs highlight the Roberto Clemente Park dumping incident as an example of the Town’s neglect of the Latino community.



In 2013, two politically connected companies began dumping tens of thousands of tons of toxic waste, including asbestos, into the park located in the heart of Islip’s predominantly Latino neighborhood, Brentwood. Town officials knew of the dumping at the time. Rather than alerting law enforcement and the community of this illegal and dangerous activity, they concealed evidence that the dumping had occurred. These Town officials were later criminally charged and pled guilty.



The Latino community’s problems with Roberto Clemente Park endured. Following the dumping, Town officials failed to promptly close the park and notify local residents of the incident. In addition, the Town failed to provide adequate translation services at a town hall meeting intended to explain the dumping to Islip’s Latino residents. The park did not reopen until 2017, leaving the Latino community without its main center for recreation and community for three-and-a-half years. When the park eventually reopened, construction was not complete and many were concerned whether the park was safe for children. Moreover, the nearby pool, which had been closed in 2011, has still not been reopened.



“The pool at Roberto Clemente Park has always been an important place for me, my family, and my community,” Ana Flores, a member of New York Communities for Change, said. “It is our pool. Our pool has been closed more than five years and it’s still closed. Because of the Town’s neglect, my brother didn’t grow up with the same pool that I grew up with. The Town’s behavior is unacceptable and would never be accepted in the rich, white communities that the Town rushed to help in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.”



The Town’s discriminatory zoning and land use practices have also permitted the industrialization of large tracts of Central Islip and Brentwood, often in close proximity to residential developments, which has impacted the health of Latino residents. Brentwood and Central Islip are home to a disproportionate number of environmental hazard and waste sites, including Superfund sites, that are located right inside residential areas; these sites are not well-maintained, posing serious risks of contamination of water sources and other community resources. As recently as 2015, the Town disregarded the health and safety of Brentwood residents by fast-tracking approvals for the establishment of a scrap metal recycling facility and metal shredder near a neighborhood, despite opposition from the Suffolk County Planning Commission and the community.



The plaintiffs also allege that the at-large system preserves an unjustifiable, bloated, corrupt political system that currently goes unchecked and allows elected officials from predominantly white communities remain in power.



“In 1988, then-Supervisor Frank Jones said the representation of the Latino community in the Town was ‘not in proportion to the influential numbers growing in the in the community. We need to do more,’” said Fred Brewington, The Law Offices of Frederick K. Brewington. “Since then, the Town has done absolutely nothing to remedy this situation and has turned its back on its Latino residents.”



“By filing this lawsuit, the Latino residents of the Town of Islip are making it clear that they will no longer be relegated to second-class status,” said Greg Laufer, Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. “For the past three decades, the democratic process has been manipulated to maintain the one-party rule that perpetuated political corruption and the inequitable distribution of the Town’s resources.”



“When I became a citizen, I thought I would never be treated like a second-class citizen in my own country,” Ms. Flores said. “I was promised that — as a citizen — my vote could elect someone to represent me and my community. Here, in the Town of Islip, that promise has never been kept. And, so, today we sue to ensure our right, as citizens of this community, to elect board members who represent us!”


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Posted in Voting Rights Act<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=15>


“Justice Kagan is Obi Wan Kenobi”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99654>
Posted on June 19, 2018 12:38 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99654> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Guy Charles<https://acslaw.org/acsblog/justice-kagan-is-obi-wan-kenobi> for the ACS Blog on Gill.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Collision Course: The Risks Companies Face When Their Political Spending and Core Values Conflict and How To Address Them”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99652>
Posted on June 19, 2018 9:42 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99652> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

New report<http://files.politicalaccountability.net/reports/cpa-reports/Final_Draft_Collision_Report.pdf> from the Center for Political Accountability.
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Posted in Uncategorized<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>


“With gerrymandering, Supreme Court hangs on Justice Kennedy’s words”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99650>
Posted on June 19, 2018 9:41 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99650> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Carolyn Shapiro oped<http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/393012-with-gerrymandering-supreme-court-hangs-on-justice-kennedys-words> in The Hill.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


SCOTUSBlog Symposium on Gill Case Begins with Gans, Muller<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99648>
Posted on June 19, 2018 8:55 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99648> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Strong start:

Special Feature: Symposium on the court’s rulings in Gill v. Whitford and Benisek v. Lamone<http://www.scotusblog.com/category/special-features/symposium-on-the-courts-rulings-in-gill-v-whitford-and-benisek-v-lamone/>
Date

Author

Post Title


06.19.18

David Gans<http://www.scotusblog.com/author/david-gans-guest/>

Symposium: The fight to vindicate our Constitution’s promise of democracy is far from over<http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/06/symposium-the-fight-to-vindicate-our-constitutions-promise-of-democracy-is-far-from-over/>

06.18.18

Derek Muller<http://www.scotusblog.com/author/derek-muller/>

Symposium: No closer to consensus<http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/06/symposium-no-closer-to-consensus/>

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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“High Court Punts A Major Test Of Extreme Partisan Gerrymandering”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99645>
Posted on June 19, 2018 8:04 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99645> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Nina Totenberg reports<https://www.npr.org/2018/06/19/621287172/high-court-punts-a-major-test-of-extreme-partisan-gerrymandering> for NPR.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“The Supreme Court punted on gerrymandering. But America’s redistricting problem can’t be fixed by judges.”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99643>
Posted on June 19, 2018 7:59 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99643> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Eric Segall<https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/supreme-court-punted-gerrymandering-america-s-redistricting-problem-can-t-ncna884641> for NBC Think.
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge: The 5 D’s of the Gill v. Whitford Decision”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99641>
Posted on June 19, 2018 7:27 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99641> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Mike Parsons blogs.<https://moderndemocracyblog.com/2018/06/19/dodge-duck-dip-dive-and-dodge/>
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>


“14 Years Later, Progress Is Elusive for Supreme Court on Partisan Redistricting”<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99639>
Posted on June 19, 2018 7:21 am<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=99639> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

Marcia Coyle:<https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2018/06/18/14-years-later-progress-is-elusive-for-supreme-court-on-partisan-redistricting/?kw=14%20Years%20Later%2C%20Progress%20Is%20Elusive%20for%20Supreme%20Court%20on%20Partisan%20Redistricting&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&cn=20180619&src=EMC-Email&pt=Daily%20Headlines>

Stanford Law School’s Pamela Karlan, who filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group of law professors supporting the Wisconsin challengers, said the decision reflects “four justices who will never find this justiciable and four who will go along with whatever Justice Kennedy says if he would just say something.”

At least the court did not say, as it did in Vieth in 2004, that these claims are not justiciable, Karlan said. She added: “But 14 years later, it’s not a lot of progress.”
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Posted in redistricting<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=6>, Supreme Court<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=29>



--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>
http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
http://electionlawblog.org<http://electionlawblog.org/>


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