A three-judge federal court ruled on Tuesday that new legislative maps passed by Illinois' Democratic-run state legislature and signed into law in June prior to the release of 2020 census data are unconstitutional and said it would take over the redistricting process.
The case is a complicated affair that consolidates two separate lawsuits, one brought by Republicans and another by the Latino voting rights group MALDEF. Democrats approved new maps, which were signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on June 4, in order to beat a June 30 deadline in the state constitution that, in the absence of new districts, would have transferred authority over redistricting to a bipartisan commission. Crucially, the commission's tiebreaking member is randomly chosen, with an even chance that the tiebreaker will belong to either party.
Normally, lawmakers would have had firm census figures with which to draw new maps by April. But thanks to delays caused by the pandemic, the Census Bureau announced earlier this year that new data would not be available until August. Rather than risk handing control to Republicans by blowing the end-of-June deadline, Democrats instead relied on population estimates to draw new maps, allowing them to maintain control over redistricting.
When the bureau at last released 2020 data, those earlier estimates turned out to be far off base in a number of cases, leading to a deviation of as much as 30% between the smallest and largest districts. Democrats anticipated this, however, and passed a new set of maps correcting these variances, which Pritzker signed in September.
The court ruled, though, that the enactment of the September maps did not render the case moot because lawmakers never actually repealed the June maps (because they feared that doing so would mean they had retroactively failed to meet the June 30 deadline to avoid the commission taking over). The judges held, therefore, that the June maps violated the constitutional principle of "one person, one vote" and could not be used. But the matter did not end there.
Rather than saying the September maps could simply replace the June maps as lawmakers intended, the court sided with MALDEF and decreed that it would assume control of the redistricting process. (Republicans had wanted the bipartisan commission to draw a new plan, but the judges rejected that request.) The court said it would consider the September maps "as a starting point" but warned that they may "not pass muster" and specifically chastised the legislature for passing them with little public notice or participation.
Plaintiffs will now have the chance to demonstrate that the September maps also violate the constitution or state law, though they face a much higher hurdle than they did with the June maps because, compared to the ease of identifying malapportionment problems, courts are much less likely to acknowledge other sorts of flaws. It's possible, therefore, that for all of this, the final result will see the September maps, or plans very similar to them, take effect.
Briefing on the matter will conclude by Nov. 18, with the court, which said it's mindful of the tight timeframe ahead of next year's elections, likely to rule soon thereafter.
