Illinois’ Democratic state lawmakers have announced plans to return to Springfield in late August to draw new state legislative districts, after it was revealed the district maps they enacted earlier this spring don’t line up with actual Census data.
Republicans, however, say the new mapmaking sessions are proof Democrats never met either the requirements of the Illinois constitution or the rules for such redistricting established in federal law, and are now seeking an unconstitutional “do over,” to escape the consequences for failing to draft legal maps by the deadline set in the Illinois state constitution.
On Aug. 19, the two most prominent Illinois Republican lawmakers filed a motion in Chicago federal court, asking a panel of three judges to grant them summary judgment in their court battle with the majority Democrats over the question of who should draw the new districts from which Illinois voters will select the state’s next slate of lawmakers to the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate.
“… The Illinois Constitution directs the General Assembly to enact a valid redistricting plan in the first instance,” attorneys for the Republican legislative leaders wrote in a memorandum supporting their summary judgment request.
“However, if the General Assembly does not enact a valid redistricting plan with the full force and effect of law by June 30, 2021, regardless of the reason for that failure, the Illinois Constitution shifts the responsibility for drafting a plan from the General Assembly to a redistricting commission.
“There is no provision of the Illinois Constitution that shifts redistricting authority back to the General Assembly after June 30th thereby giving the General Assembly a ‘do over.’ To do so would undermine the very process enshrined in the Illinois Constitution, and ratified by Illinois citizens, vesting such power with the redistricting commission.”
State Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, and State Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, each of whom lead the Republican caucuses in their respective houses of the Illinois General Assembly, filed suit to challenge the first versions of the Democratic-drawn district maps in June.
The lawsuit named as defendants Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, as well as the Illinois State Board of Elections.
The lawsuit asserts the Democratic-drawn district maps violate voters’ constitutional rights by placing them in unequal districts, which were drawn using unofficial population estimates through the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, rather than actual data from the decennial U.S. Census.
The Republicans asserted the use of such population estimates would inevitably result in districts that would be revealed to not be close enough in population, once actual Census data was released.
While such Census data is normally released in the spring following the Census, the release of the data was delayed by several months in 2021, in part, because of problems in collecting data amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, under the Illinois state constitution, the Democratic majority had until June 30 to draft and approve new legislative district maps. If maps were not approved by that date, the task would fall to special redistricting commission. The partisan majority of that commission could be determined by chance, through the drawing of lots.
Faced with the prospect of not meeting the June 30 deadline, and potentially losing partisan control of the redistricting process, Democrats approved the maps using ACS population estimates. The maps were signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker, also a Democrat.
The new maps prompted the lawsuit from the Republican leaders, as well as a separate challenge from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, of Chicago.
The Republican lawsuit, however, also asked the judges to toss out the maps as illegal and void.
Republicans said the release of Census data in mid-August justified their lawsuit, as an analysis determined the districts were significantly unbalanced. Under prior U.S. Supreme Court rulings, districts generally cannot be more than 10% out of balance. However, under the approved Democratic maps, state House districts vary by as much as 30%, and state Senate districts by around 20%, the Republicans noted.
They said such failures indicate Democrats never approved any legally valid maps at any time, much less before the June 30 deadline. So the task of drawing new state maps should fall to a redistricting commission, and not be sent back to the same Democrats who drew the allegedly illegal maps in the first place, Republicans argued.
Democrats have not publicly challenged the Republican population analysis.
Rather, Welch and Harmon each called special legislative sessions for the end of August, specifically to approve new maps that would better align with Census data.
Welch and Harmon have not yet responded to the Republicans’ motion for summary judgment directly.
Rather, on Aug. 20, they asked the judges to shut down proceedings in the case until at least Sept. 1, the day after the special session is scheduled to end.
The Democrats told the judges the new maps will address the challenges brought in the lawsuits over the type of data that was used to draft the initial approved maps.
As in earlier filings, they again asserted the earlier maps should still be considered valid, because federal courts have not ruled states cannot rely on other sources of population estimates other than official U.S. Census data when drawing district maps.
“…Plaintiffs in this case seek for this Court to reverse time and change history with a holding that the current redistricting plan did not exist at all on June 30,” attorneys for the Democratic lawmakers wrote in an Aug. 20 memorandum.
“That is the only way Plaintiffs can argue, as they do, that the Illinois Constitution’s backup plan should have activated to require a special Commission. This position does not reconcile that the Illinois Constitution’s mandated dates for a Commission to be empaneled and to produce a plan have also passed, or that any redistricting plan such a Commission would have drawn also would not have used official census data and therefore also would be subject to Plaintiffs’ allegations.
“In any event, courts cannot turn back time and rewrite history as would be necessary for Plaintiffs’ desired outcome…”
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.