On March 25, Monday, a 3-judge U.S. District Court will hold a trial in Harris v Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, 2:12cv894. The issue is whether the state’s U.S. House districts are equal enough in population to be constitutional. See this story.
Another case pending against the Arizona U.S. House districts is moving much more slowly. That case, Arizona State Legislature v Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, 2:12cv1211, concerns whether having an independent redistricting commission draw U.S. House districts is unconstitutional. The legislature argues that the U.S. Constitution, Article One, provides that only legislatures, and not independent redistricting commissions, can draw U.S. House districts. That case is still bogged down over the issue of whether 3 judges are needed, or just a single judge.
ALL population stats are instantly obsolete — due to deaths, legal immigrant folks, movers.
P.R. in all regimes.
The case described in the article appears to be about the legislative districts (Arizona has 30 districts, which each elect one senator and two representatives).
The population deviation is highly correlated with race (the correlation between population deviation and percentage of Anglo population is 0.80).
It would appear to be a clear violation of the 15th Amendment.
Regarding ‘Arizona State Legislature v Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission’
A legislature (or Congress) could delegate the process of determining congressional district boundaries to some other body. A state constitution may not.
The short title of the constitutional amendment includes the following text:
“… This amendment takes the redistricting power away from the Arizona Legislature. …”
It might as well read, “This amendment abrogates Article 1, Section 4 of the United States Constitution”.