No surprise …
While the media is running the census numbers dropped yesterday as ‘the numbers’?
These are just the first draft….
Undercounts are the norm for these things and states like New York who have their House numbers hanging on just 89 people counted will ask and get some recounts …These civil actions are aimed at there redrawing of House Districts….
This will apply to Democrat’s AND Republicans….
The lawsuits are just the first wave of what is likely to be a bipartisan rush to the courthouse. Over the last decade, Elias and Democrats sued over district boundaries in states like North Carolina, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. State Supreme Courts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania struck down their states’ political boundaries in what turned into significant wins for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts have no authority over questions of political gerrymandering, and the high court also struck down a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that would have given minority voters avenues to sue as well.
Republicans sued too, notably over a Maryland remap that helped Democrats capture an extra House district in the western third of the state. Republican activists also challenged a map in Arizona, drawn by an independent commission, that resulted in more seats for Democratic candidates….
More on the mounting numbers of lawsuits coming on the 2020 census numbers ….
Again?
The final official numbers are NOT due to or after August….
“We will see a lot of lawsuits,” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director at the good government group Common Cause, chuckling at a question about how much litigation there will be this redistricting cycle. Redistricting, she said, “is always a breeding ground for people who are discontent with the results.”
But the litigation is starting well before the results are clear, and what is unusual this year is the focus on exactly what data is used and when it is released. Data from the decennial census has been delayed for months, due in part to the pandemic and the Trump administration’s handling of the count.
Apportionment data — the topline numbers that determine the number of House seats each state gets — was statutorily required to be released by Dec. 31, 2020, but it just arrived on Monday. Redistricting data, the more granular data that includes demographic information over small geographic areas, is not expected until later this summer.
That delay has upended the redistricting process in dozens of states that have deadlines that are incompatible with the new release calendar, which has sent states scrambling to the courts for relief.
The delay could also have a downstream effect on lawsuits that challenge the eventual map lines once they’re drawn.
“There’s a decent chance that a number of them won’t get resolved before the 2022 election,”…
More…