On April 22, a Republican candidate for U.S. House in Missouri filed a federal lawsuit, complaining that the legislature has still not passed any U.S. House redistricting bill. Berry v Ashcroft, e.d., 4:22cv-465. Here is the Complaint.
Missouri is the only state in which the legislature hasn’t yet passed a bill for U.S. House redistricting (except, obviously, the states that only have one seat).
This news story concerns Angela Pence, the Libertarian nominee for U.S. House in Georgia’s 14th district U.S. House race. She needs about 23,000 valid signatures and has 4,000 so far. The deadline is in mid-July. As the article explains, no minor party candidate for a regularly-scheduled U.S. House election has ever appeared on the ballot since before 1943, the year the current law was passed.
The article does not say that the lawsuit against that law is still alive. Nor does it mention the fact that two Georgia precedents say that when the petition period is shorter than usual, due to late redistricting, the requirement must be relaxed.
On April 27, New York’s highest state court, the Court of Appeals, issued an opinion in Harkenrider v Hochul, the lawsuit over the state’s new U.S. House districts. By a vote of 4-3, the Court agreed with the lower courts, and said the new plan violates the state constitution because it is a partisan gerrymander. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for the link.
The Court will appoint a special master to quickly draw new districts.
On April 26, the New York State Court of Appeals heard Harkenrider v Hochul, the case over New York’s U.S. House redistricting. Here is a New York Times article about the oral argument. It seems the outcome is difficult to predict. The lower state courts had ruled against the current maps.
Nancy Jacobson, founder of “No Labels”, here predicts in The Hill that there will be an independent centrist presidential candidate in 2024 who will have appeal to many voters.
