Thank you for making me aware that Congressman Tanner,
a Tennessee Democrat, has a bill on redistricting. I
wonder if you know what got Congressman Tanner
interested in this subject? Has there been publicity
about his bill?
--- Michael McDonald <mmcdon@gmu.edu> wrote:
Rep. Tannerâs redistricting bill, which would set up
a bipartisan
redistricting commission in every state, has 43
co-sponsors. Perhaps more
California Republicans will come on board if the
referendum makes it to the
ballot.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.02642:
While I am encouraged at the action in California, I
am not holding my
breath, as negotiations between the legislature and
governor over a similar
bill broke down last year. I am truly interested in
what the anti-Prop. 77
activists such as Daniel Lowenstein plan to do if
this referendum passes the
legislature and makes it to the ballot. An
organized opposition could
defeat a ballot measure, particularly one that
combines redistricting with
term limits reform (which in my opinion needs to be
reformed), as we also
learned from California and Ohio that the public is
skeptical of bundled
ballot measures.
==================================
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution
Assistant Professor, Dept of Public and
International Affairs
George Mason University
4400 University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
Office: 703-993-4191
Fax: 703-993-1399
mmcdon@gmu.edu
http://elections.gmu.edu/
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu]On
Behalf Of Scarberry, Mark
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 12:22 PM
To: election-law
Subject: California redistricting proposal
An excerpt from the California reapportionment
article cited below, dealing
with a possible deal to set up an independent
redistricting commission by
way of a state constitutional amendment:
"Congressional leaders, who have no say on the
proposal, have
not yet weighed in on the proposal publicly, Capitol
insiders say, but they
are not happy. 'They are going to hate it,' one
said."
Of course it would be very difficult to get a bill
passed in Congress
dealing with this matter, but it seems that Congress
could override any
California state law scheme for drawing U.S. House
districts.
U.S. Const. Art. I, sec. 4, cl. 1.
I wonder whether there would be any U.S.
constitutional requirement that a
federal law dealing with redistricting be uniform
across the country. If
not -- if fundamental rights analysis did not lead
to a requirement that
voters in each state be treated similarly by federal
legislation -- then I
suppose Congress could override one state's
redistricting scheme that was
thought to be objectionable, without having to set
up a uniform national
approach to redistricting.
Any thoughts on that issue or on whether, after City
of Boerne, Congress
could rely on its 14th Am., sec. 5, powers to set up
national standards for
redistricting of state legislative districts?
Mark S. Scarberry
Pepperdine University School of Law
_____
From: owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu
[mailto:owner-election-law_gl@majordomo.lls.edu] On
Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 7:48 AM
To: election-law
Subject: Electionlawblog news and commentary 1/26/06
"Legislative leaders getting closer on
reapportionment"
Capitol Weekly offers this report
<http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=458>
on what
appears to be progress toward reaching a legislative
deal on taking
redistricting away from the California legislature.
[snip]
--
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu <mailto:rick.hasen@lls.edu>
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org
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