redistricting
Biography of a district: Schools could benefit from more indirect funding
Mark Bazzell, superintendent of Pike County Schools, said that he wants his new congressional representative to have been a teacher, be married to a teacher or to come spend a day in one of his third grade classrooms. “See what it’s like to be a third grade teacher,” he said. Bazzell and other superintendents said […]
Federal appeals court dismisses Arkansas redistricting lawsuit
This story was originally published on Arkansas Advocate. A federal appeals panel on Monday affirmed a lower court’s ruling and dismissed a case challenging Arkansas’ state redistricting map, asserting that only the United States attorney general can enforce the Voting Rights Act. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that […]
Alabama presented with $515,000 bill for redrawn congressional maps
A team that drew new congressional maps for the state presented a $515,000 bill to Alabama in a court filing Friday. If a federal court approves the bill, the state will have 30 days to pay the special master team, which includes the Special Master Richard Allen, cartographer David Ely and their legal counsel. Allen’s […]
Georgia special legislative session on tap for the holidays after judge tosses political maps
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called a special session to draw new political maps after a federal judge struck down Georgia’s congressional and legislative boundary lines as racially discriminatory and blocked the state from using the maps in future elections. Kemp set Nov. 29 as the date for state lawmakers to return to Atlanta for […]
Federal judge strikes down Georgia’s political maps, sending lawmakers back to the drawing board
A federal court judge has struck down Georgia’s political maps and blocked the state from using the maps for future elections. U,S. District Judge Steve C. Jones issued his ruling Thursday after holding a nearly two-week trial last month. Jones concluded that the GOP-drawn maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars […]
Wiregrass officials see opportunities in new Alabama congressional district
The court-ordered changes to the 2nd Congressional District also reshaped Alabama’s 1st Congressional District of the state. The district for decades was centered around Mobile Bay, taking in Mobile and Baldwin counties, along with Escambia County and portions of the Black Belt. But after a federal court earlier this month approved new congressional maps aimed […]
Some potential 2nd District candidates don’t live there. That’s allowed by the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Constitution says members of the United States House of Representatives must be 25 years old; a United States citizen for at least seven years and a resident of the state they would represent. But the Constitution does not require a member of the U.S. House to live in the district that elects them. […]
Federal court selects new Alabama congressional map
A federal court Thursday ordered Alabama to implement a new congressional map drawn by a court-appointed special master that creates a majority-Black district and a near-majority Black district. In a 49-page opinion issued on Thursday morning, U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus and U.S. district judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer wrote that the plan, known […]
Federal court will ‘rule shortly’ on Alabama’s new congressional map
A federal judge said Tuesday that a three-judge panel will “rule shortly” a new congressional map for the state of Alabama. The comment from U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus, on the panel alongside U.S. district judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer, came at the end of a 90-minute hearing in Birmingham where attorneys for the […]
Alabama congressional map proposals headed to federal court hearing
A federal court Tuesday will hold hearings in Birmingham on which of three proposed Alabama congressional maps should be put in place for the 2024 elections. Special Master Richard Allen filed three potential maps last week, aiming to meet the three-judge panel’s directive that two of the proposed districts give Black voters a chance to […]
Steve Marshall doesn’t know what Jim Crow was
Last Tuesday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a “statement on redistricting to the people of Alabama.” It said his office would abide by a federal court order creating a second majority or near-majority Black congressional district while appealing the ruling. That’s a standard comment when one loses cases like these. (The office on Friday […]
Alabama Secretary of State, reapportionment chairs oppose maps drawn by special master
Alabama’s secretary of state and the chairs of the Alabama Legislature’s reapportionment committees filed objections to new congressional map proposals with a federal court on Thursday. The objections from Secretary of State Wes Allen; Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile and Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, used nearly identical language, criticizing the three proposed maps from a special […]