On March 1, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously invalidated twelve Virginia state house legislative districts in Bethune-Hill v Virginia State Board of Elections, 15-680. The basis for the decision is that the legislature relied too heavily on race when it drew the boundaries. The decision says that the state’s excuse, that all the districts at issue comport with traditional good districting practices (such as compactness, and respecting county and city boundaries), is not good enough. States must not depend too heavily on race when they draw boundaries.
On March 10, a 3-judge U.S. District Court invalidated three U.S. House districts in Texas. That case is Perez v Abbott, western district, SA-11-cv-360. The vote was 2-1. The majority said the legislature’s lines depend too heavily on the proportion of voters in each district who are Latino. The dissent said the lines were drawn for partisan reasons (which is permitted). But the majority said that, although it is true the motivation was partisan, the means still matter, and the means were to draw districts manipulating the number of members of ethnic groups. The case is especially complicated because the ruling concerns the 2011 districts. The 2011 districts were altered somewhat by a new plan in 2013, but the majority said the case is not moot because the principles used in the 2011 districting need to be evaluated because they are likely to recur, unless it is determined that such means are either unconstitutional or violate the Voting Rights Act.
See this story about the Texas decision. Thanks to Rick Hasen for news about the Texas decision, which came down in the evening.
The district court imposed a remedial plan that was used for the 2012 election. In 2013, the legislature adopted the court’s remedial plan, and that has been used for 2014 and 2016. Presumably the district court will now have to decide whether their remedial plan was unconstitutional.
The SCOTUS did not invalidate any Virginia House district boundaries. They remanded to the district court 11 of the districts, to determine if the legislature did not pretend that they were not using race, when they were required to do so.
The 12th district was upheld because the district court found the legislature had used race, but had justification for doing so in order to trick the USDOJ into approving the plan.
The real problem is that legislators, and even the staff of state legislatures…
The SCOTUS did not invalidate any Virginia House district boundaries. They remanded to the district court 11 of the districts, to determine if the legislature did not pretend that they were not using race, when they were required to do so.
The 12th district was upheld because the district court found the legislature had used race, but had justification for doing so in order to trick the USDOJ into approving the plan.