Advocacy News – Jan. 10, 2024
Michigan’s Redistricting Commission must redraw seven state House districts ruled unconstitutional by February 2, a three-judge panel ordered Monday.
Why it matters: A group of metro Detroit voters sued the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (“Commission”) in U.S. District Court alleging the Commission violated the federal Voting Rights Act by drawing maps that diminish Black voters’ opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. Late last year, a three-judge panel ruled that 13 state legislative districts (seven in the state House and six in the state Senate) violate the U.S. Constitution because the Commission “overwhelmingly” drew state legislative districts on the basis of race and relied on faulty data that denied Black voters proper representation.
On Monday, the court ordered the citizen-led Commission to publish its proposed redrawn state House maps and put them forward for public comment by Feb. 2. Barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, the court’s decision could have big implications on the 2024 elections and beyond, shaking up who is eligible to represent the redrawn districts and even the partisan makeup of the state House.
The court’s order did not set a date for redrawing the struck-down state Senate maps and denied a request by the plaintiffs to hold special elections in the six state Senate districts affected by the decision. That means the next Senate elections would be in 2026, which is the normal timeline for those seats.
The invalidated House districts are:
- House District 1, currently represented by Tyrone Carter (D-Detroit)
- House District 7, currently represented by Helena Scott (D-Detroit)
- House District 8, currently represented by Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck)
- House District 10, currently represented by Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit)
- House District 11, currently represented by Veronica Paiz (D-Harper Woods)
- House District 12, currently represented by Kimberly Edwards (D-Eastpointe)
- House District 14, currently represented by Donavan McKinney (D-Detroit)