Illinois Republican lawmakers say last week’s release of U.S. Census data reveals the legislative maps drafted to cement and increase the state’s Democratic majority in Springfield should be thrown out as unconstitutionally imbalanced.
On Aug. 16, State Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, said a Republican analysis of official Census data backs up the point the state’s Republicans made in their lawsuit challenging the maps:
That Democrats’ zeal to preserve their map-making power caused them to rush too far ahead and draw legislative district maps that don’t match the actual population data.
“Just as we predicted, the maps that were drawn by Illinois Democrats in a closed room and without public input, and signed by Governor Pritzker, have proven to be unusable and unlawful given the release of the U.S. Census data,” said Durkin.
Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released official block-by-block data it says can be used for official purposes, including the drawing of legislative maps.
The federal agency normally makes such data available to the states and the public months earlier. However, the completion of the Census was delayed in 2020 by a number of factors, with officials mostly blaming the COVID-19 pandemic for the delays.
Despite the lack of official Census data, Illinois Democrats in Springfield still plunged ahead with the once-per-decade task of redrawing the district map for the Illinois State House and Senate. The Democratic-drawn map, completed behind closed doors, was signed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker.
Democrats said they were obligated to complete the process by the end of the spring legislative session, because the Illinois state constitution requires such maps to be enacted by June 30. Failing to enact a map by June 30 would trigger a backup provision that would delegate the task to a bipartisan commission. The majority on that commission would be decided by the drawing of lots, presenting Republicans with a chance to win control of the redistricting process.
While the maps were approved, Republicans argued the maps were actually illegal. The minority party asserted the maps improperly relied on five-year population estimates derived from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Republicans pressed these claims in a lawsuit filed in federal court in June. In that complaint, they predicted the districts drawn by Democrats, and signed into law by Pritzker, would result in districts that were not equal in population, as required by the U.S. Constitution and defined under prior U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
They noted computer models conducted following the 2010 Census revealed that any maps drawn using ACS population estimates would deviate from actual Census data by 23%-55%.
After crunching last week’s data, Durkin said Republican analysts concluded the new state legislative maps were off by nearly 30%, “three times the maximum range allowed by federal law,” the Republican lawmakers said in a release on Monday.
“Despite bipartisan pleas to wait for the Census numbers like 48 other states, Illinois Democratic politicians that were led by Gov. Pritzker ignored the voting rights of their own constituents in an attempt to hold absolute power for another decade,” said State Sen. Dan McConchie , R-Hawthorn Woods, who leads the minority party in the State Senate.
According to a report published by The Center Square, state Democratic lawmakers said they were also analyzing Census data.
The alleged disparities are likely to play a central role in coming arguments in federal lawsuits being pursued by both the Republican lawmakers and organizations representing Illinois Latino citizens, who likewise claim the new district maps are discriminatory and rely on bad data.
According to recent filings, a three-judge panel hearing those cases has placed the questions on an expedited schedule, with a trial potentially being held in late September.
Most recently, attorneys for the Republican and Democratic legislative leaders have sparred over requests for documents. Republicans have accused the Democrats of delaying responding to the so-called discovery requests, if not ignoring them outright, in an attempt to thwart the Republican legal challenge.
Republicans are asking the court to order Democrats, including House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, to turn over a trove of documents and other material explaining what data the Democrats used, and how Democrats drew the maps as they did.
Democrats are opposing those requests, asserting the documents demanded are not relevant to the case, and Republicans have cast too wide a net. Lawyers for the Democrats argue the case is simply about the Democrats’ use ACS estimates.
More specifically, they assert the case will turn on “the type of data that can be used and not how certain data was used…” Democrats said that question should require much less discovery than what Republicans have demanded to this point.
The judges have yet to rule on the document requests.
Democrats and state of Illinois defendants are represented in the case by attorneys Michael J. Kasper, of Chicago; Devon C. Bruce, of the firm of Power Rogers; Heather Wier Vaught, of LaGrange; Sean Berkowitz and Colleen C. Smith, of Latham & Watkins, of Chicago; and Adam R. Vaught, of Hinshaw & Culbertson, of Chicago.
Republican lawmakers are represented by attorneys Phillip A. Luetkehans and Brian J. Armstrong, of the firm of Luetkehans Brady Garner & Armstrong, of Itasca; and Charles E. Harris II, Mitchell D. Holzrichter, Thomas V. Panoff, Christopher S. Comstock, Heather A. Weiner, Christopher A. Knight and Joseph D. Blackhurst, of the firm of Mayer Brown, of Chicago.