Fighting against gerrymandering
Since the country’s inception, politicians have manipulated district lines for partisan or racial advantage. It doesn’t have to be that way.
In a democracy, the views of the people should count equally, and the representatives they elect should be responsive to their needs. Recently, gerrymandering has become an even more potent tool for certain groups to gain outsized political influence. Advances in technology allow partisans to draw voters into and out of districts with surgical precision, aided by intensifying partisanship and more predictable voting patterns. As a result, it’s easier than ever for the “ins” to contort redistricting plans to stifle the political voices of the “outs.”
Related Actions
ELC, along with Abrams Fensterman, LLP, are representing five Latino voters in a lawsuit challenging the at-large elections for Mount Pleasant Town Board as a violation of the New York Voting Rights Act. The at-large system dilutes the votes of Latino members of the community and denies them an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
The Election Law Clinic filed an amicus brief on behalf of Professor Charles Fried to the Supreme Court of Utah in support of Plaintiffs. The brief explains that Utah’s Constitution contains provisions distinct from the federal Constitution, in particular, it includes the Free Elections and Uniform Operation of Laws Clauses. The original meaning of these constitutional protections and this Court’s own precedent compels the conclusion that partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable under Utah’s Constitution.
The brief, filed by the Election Law Clinic and Campaign Legal Center to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, explains that the district court erred by applying the wrong legal standard.
In conjunction with Civil Rights and Justice Clinic University of Washington School of Law, ELC filed a brief of Law School Clinics focused on Civil Rights as Amici Curiae.
The Election Law Clinic, along with Fair Districts GA, filed a friends of the court brief in support of Plaintiffs in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity v. Raffensperger to demonstrate that it is not hard to draw Georgia districts that respect the legislature’s discretionary choices while complying with the Voting Rights Act.
The Election Law Clinic, along with local counsel Poyner Spruill LLP, today filed a friend of the court brief (amicus brief) on behalf of Professor Charles Fried, the Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. The brief asked the North Carolina Supreme Court to find partisan gerrymandering justiciable under the state’s Constitution.
The Wisconsin Legislature and its allies have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to redraw the State’s map in a way that would solidify the State’s 2011 partisan gerrymander for the next decade. ELC is representing five plaintiffs from Gill v. Whitford as amici curiae who want to ensure that the Wisconsin Supreme Court does not perpetuate the gerrymander under the guise of a “least-change” approach.