[EL] can congress dictate redistricting commissions

[Mark Scarberry]

A question I asked on my Election Law final exam was whether Congress could
impose a preclearance requirement on states' redistricting plans if they
did not use independent redistricting commissions.

*Requiring* states to set up commissions could violate anti-commandeering
doctrine, right?

Otherwise it would seem that Art. IV, sec. 4, cl. 1, would give Congress
authority to determine the way that congressional districts are drawn. I
suppose Congress could set up a redistricting commission or commissions to
draw the districts.

It isn't clear to me where Congress would get authority with regard to
drawing of districts for state legislatures, other than, conceivably, the
enforcement provisions of the 14th and 15th Amendments.

Mark

[image: Pepperdine wordmark]*Caruso School of Law*

*Mark S. Scarberry*

*Professor of Lawmark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu
<mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu>*
Personal: mark.scarberry at gmail.com




On Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 11:19 AM Hess, Douglas (Doug) <HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu>
wrote:

> Can the US Congress require states to use a type of redistricting
> commission that it establishes (or select from a set of types it lists)?
>
>
>
> -----------------------
>
> Douglas R Hess
>
> Assistant Professor, Political Science/Policy Studies
>
> Grinnell College
>
> *On sabbatical until fall 2021*
>
> *My latest op-ed using Grinnell College National Poll:
> https://bit.ly/hesshess102020 <https://bit.ly/hesshess102020> *
>
>
>
> *Website: http://www.douglasrhess.com <http://www.douglasrhess.com> *
>
> -----------------------
>
>
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