On July 20, a lower Illinois state court ruled that the initiative to set up an independent redistricting commission to draws legislative district lines cannot be on the November 2016 ballot, even though it has enough signatures. She said the Illinois Constitution only permits initiatives for measures that makes changes in the procedures of the legislature. See this story. The case is Hooker v Illinois State Board of Elections, 16 CH-6539. The proponents will appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
So who does the line-drawing now? The legislators, no?
“The Illinois Constitution says citizen-led petitions “shall be limited to structural and procedural” changes to the Legislature. Independent Maps’ lawyers argue its proposal meets that requirement because redrawing district lines both fundamentally changes the structure of the Legislature and also the procedure by which legislative maps are drawn.”
Sounds reasonable to me.
ALL 50 States have EVIL and VICIOUS ANTI-Democracy minority rule gerrymander systems —
1/2 or less votes x 1/2 rigged pack/crack gerrymander districts = 1/4 or less CONTROL
= OLIGARCHY — ALWAYS tending towards power mad MONARCHS.
i.e. ALL gerrymander commissions as in CA and the IL Map Amdt are worse that worthless —
i.e. are EVIL BOGUS so called reforms.
—-
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
The court ruled that the initiative did make structural and procedural changes. But it also ruled that the changes were not limited to legislature changes.
Ordinarily amendments to the Illinois Constitution are started by the legislature. There is also the possibility for a constitutional convention every 20 years, but voters typically reject that option.
The idea behind permitting initiatives with regard to the legislature, is that the legislature would never propose anything that would interfere with their political power. But to ensure that such measures do not stray, the restriction to legislative structures and procedures is severe.
Previous court decisions had interpreted “procedure and structure” to require changes to both. The only initiative that was ever successful, that by Pat Quinn to eliminate cumulative voting, also reduced the size of the legislature.
But the court today, said that changes were not limited to the Legislature article. For example, the initiative calls for the state Auditor General to be involved in selection of the commissioners (similar to California). There are several such ancillary roles that the court said were outside the scope of the Legislature Article.
See Count V of the decision.
The court ruled that the initiative did make structural and procedural changes. But it also ruled that the changes were not limited to changes in the Legislature article of the Constitution.
Ordinarily amendments to the Illinois Constitution are started by the legislature. There is also the possibility for a constitutional convention every 20 years, but voters typically reject that option.
The idea behind permitting initiatives with regard to the legislature is that the legislature would never propose anything that would interfere with their political power. But to ensure that such measures do not stray, the restriction to legislative structures and procedures is severe.
Previous court decisions had interpreted “structural and procedural” to require changes to both. The only initiative that was ever successful, that by Pat Quinn to eliminate cumulative voting, also reduced the size of the legislature. The court today said that the initiative did propose both structural and procedural changes.
But the court today, said that changes were not limited to the Legislature article. For example, the initiative calls for the state Auditor General to be involved in selection of the commissioners (similar to California). There are several such ancillary roles that the court said were outside the scope of the Legislature Article.
See Count V of the decision
According to the story, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said, “I am disappointed for the 546,000 registered Republican and Democratic voters who felt strongly enough to sign their support for a ballot initiative that would remove politics from the remap process.” Ironically, apparently Durkin didn’t “remove politics” from his comments, failing to recognize that there were likely a number of independents and members of parties other than the Democratic and Republican that also signed the petition.
More on point, this decision demonstrates how ineffective this limited initiative power is and how easily is can thwarted by those in power. It exposes the need to remove the limitation and allow initiative to amend any part of the Illinois constitution, for any reason. Of course, this can happen only through a constitutional convention or through an extremely unlikely action of the legislators themselves; but there’s no guarantee that voters will even approve a convention at the next opportunity in 2028.
How many States have to liberated by a new Union Army/Navy from the EVIL ANTI-Democracy gerrymander OLIGARCHS in control of many States ???
ONE guess what that *Republican Form of Government* means in the context of 1787 — i.e. all the EVIL rotted monarchy/oligarchy regimes in Europe in 1787.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
A truly representative legislative map-making body would be completely independent of the Legislature, the Supreme Court and the Auditor General. Since Illinois has 102 counties, a 202 member body would have to be created in order to have at least one representative from each county, and the remaining 100 members would be proportionally allocated to each county based on population. If this were done on a population only basis, some counties would not a representative (viz, Cook vs Saline or Pope Counties). The remaining 100 members would be divided proportionally based on county population divided by the total population of the State of Illinois. Each county would elect a map-making representative and the body would meet each year for study purposes and render its new map based on the 10 year Federal census. Typical persons running for map-making seats would be geographers, lawyers, farmers, engineers, etc. The body would set up its own structure and hierarchy separate from the Legislative interference. The Legislature would allocate a specific annual expenditure, based on members meeting at least quarterly. Travel reimbursements would follow state guidelines, with no salaries awarded, except for per diem. Much of the research work can be done by the internet. Such a map-making body would be citizen-only where independent map making candidates can be listed on state ballots along with partisan members without onerous signature-gathering requirements. The legislative map would be subject to approval by voters across the state, minimizing input from the Legislature. Clearly the map would require conformance to Federal and State requirements such that each district had sufficient parity and oddly-shaped divisions of districts would be strictly scrutinized. What could actually occur is that longstanding voting preferences may not significantly change each district. However, it does tamp down criticism by the Governor or other partisans because direct voter election of map-makers are not simply garnering votes only for political division.