(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/09/2023) Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) has until Feb. 2 to produce an electoral map for the Michigan House for public comment.
The order from the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court also denied the Detroit voters' request for special Senate elections in 2024.
"The Court will issue a formal opinion relating to the Senate, but the parties should be aware now so they can focus on the House districts and 2024," the order from U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney reads.
The order comes as the April 23 candidate filing deadline for the Aug. 6 primary election fast approaches.
Edward Woods III, a spokesperson for the MICRC, said the commission appreciates the court "limiting the immediate order" to the House, noting that on Monday he submitted proposed mapping dates for the commission's consideration at its special meeting Jan. 11.
"In addition, I reached out and left messages with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and the City of Detroit Department of Neighborhoods to request presentations," he said. "The Commission will meet the targeted deadline of Friday, Feb. 2 to propose new maps."
The federal appeals panel – Maloney, U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Raymond Kethledge and U.S. District Judge Janet Neff – heard testimony in November from MICRC members and experts, including one who said the commission was "playing dice" when it drew the legislative maps in 2021 that lowered the number of African American voters in majority-Black Detroit areas.
In December, the panel ruled that 13 state legislative districts – seven in the House and six in the Senate, all in and around Detroit – violate the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
The plaintiffs, Detroit voters led by Donald Agee Jr., also alleged the commission violated the federal Voting Rights Act, but the panel did not opine on that claim.
The commission plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the lower court's redrawing order while it appeals the ruling against the maps.
However, the district court panel, who denied a stay, believes the commission is unlikely to succeed in its argument that it had "'good reasons' to believe its racial gerrymandering was necessary to comply with the VRA."
"… That view is implausible because the Commission lacked the requisite data" needed, including whether Black Detroiters were politically cohesive and "that white voters voted as a bloc to usually defeat the African American candidate of choice," Maloney's order reads.
"Detroit area politics rise and fall in the Democratic Party's primary elections because Democrats almost always prevail in the general elections," the order noted. "Simply put, the Commission had no data indicating how African American candidates of choice performed in the Democratic primaries in Detroit."
Since the panel's initial ruling, three commissioners resigned their post and new members were selected.
The panel's order did not mention a court-appointed special master, who could help in the redrawing process.
Potential Special Masters
Both sides in the case also submitted their suggestions for a special master, including professors.
The plaintiffs suggest Redistricting Insights chief legal counsel Matt Rexroad; M.V. "Trey" Hood III, professor with the University of Georgia's department of political science; and Douglas Johnson, president of National Demographics Corporation.
The MICRC suggested professors Nathaniel Persily and Michael Barber, of Stanford University and Brigham Young University, respectively.
More about the potential pick:
- Rexford, who has been part of California's redistricting process, also served as a senior staff person in the California state Legislature and he's served on Woodland City Council as well as both vice mayor and mayor.
- Hood, also a director of the SPIA Survey Research Center, is the author of the peer-reviewed book, "The Rational Southerner: Black Mobilization, Republican Growth and the Partisan Transformation of the American South."
- Johnson, president of National Demographics Corporation, has published articles on California's VRA as well as redistricting commissions in Ohio, Arizona and Santa Barbara County in California, according to his resume. He's also been an expert witness in a number of court cases and consulted on charter and/or ballot language.
- Persily is a former special master for redistricting of Connecticut Congressional Districts and was appointed by state Supreme Courts in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia and Maryland, according to his resume. He also served as an expert witness in the California State Senate redistricting litigation.
- Barber's research interests lie in American politics, congressional polarization, political ideology, campaign finance and survey research. He has published a number of articles, including "Who's the Partisan: Are Issues or Groups More Important to Partisanship?"
