Subject: Re: [EL] population deviations for state legislatures
From: Justin Levitt
Date: 11/18/2010, 1:33 PM
To: Tom Brunell
CC: Election Law <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>

The Citizen's Guide to Redistricting (2008 edition here; a 2010 edition just went to the printers) has a compilation of state laws on pp. 66-68.  There's also an updated two-page reference chart for state laws here.  Both show state-law constraints pertaining to various redistricting criteria, including equal population.

Though there were a few other states with tight equal population requirements under state law, to my knowledge, none of the states you mentioned had particular laws (constitutional requirements, or statutes, or guidelines) requiring anything other than "approximately equal" population, in line with federal constitutional requirements. 

Before the 2000 cycle, many presumed that federal constitutional requirements permitted a 10% population deviation as a sort of safe harbor for state legislative districts.  In 2004, Larios v. Cox, 300 F.Supp.2d 1320 (N.D. Ga. 2004), aff'd 124 S. Ct. 1503, struck down state districts within the 10% range because the population deviation had been implemented for impermissible purposes, and the Supreme Court's summary affirmation of that decision raised questions about the nature of the equal population requirement for state legislative districts around the country. 

So even though legislators in the chambers you mentioned hadn't had the benefit of Larios when they were drawing districts in the last cycle, it might be that some of them were just very cautious, and others were just very prescient...

Justin

On 11/18/2010 12:31 PM, Tom Brunell wrote: 
Does anyone know which states legally restrict the amount of  
population deviations for state legislative districts?  The data show  
that current lower chamber districts in California, Washington,  
Florida, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Illinois all have trivial  
population deviations.  I am just curious if these are mandated by law/ 
state constitution, or it was a choice.

Thanks,
Tom


Tom Brunell
Professor of Political Science
Associate Dean of Graduate Education
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
The University of Texas at Dallas
800 W. Campbell Road, GR 31
Richardson, TX 75080-3021
(972) 883-4963
http://www.utdallas.edu/~tbrunell





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-- 
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA  90015
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justin.levitt@lls.edu
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