Democrats who dominate Illinois’ state government violated the constitutional rights of Illinois voters when they rushed through new legislative district maps late this spring that did not use actual Census data, just as Republicans and Latino advocacy groups claimed, a panel of Chicago federal judges ruled.
However, the judges said that doesn’t mean Republicans will get a chance to wrest some control of the mapmaking process from the Democratic supermajority in revising those maps.
Rather, the judges said, the court will continue to review replacement maps approved by the Illinois General Assembly at the end of August, to see if those maps fare better, and will give the objectors a chance to submit their own versions of the maps, as well.
Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park)
| Photo Courtesy of Don Harmon website
After those maps were signed into law, the leaders of the Republican delegations in the Illinois State House and Senate filed challenges to the maps in federal court.
Both lawsuits asserted the Democrats moved too quickly to approve the maps, using flawed population estimates, rather than waiting for actual U.S. Census data, certified for use with drawing new legislative district maps.
The Census Bureau announced last spring that Census data, which would normally have been available by spring for lawmakers to use in drawing new legislative district maps, would be delayed until mid-August. The Census Bureau blamed difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democrats, however, said the General Assembly needed to approve maps during the General Assembly’s spring session, because the Illinois state constitution requires such maps be approved by June 30. If not, the mapmaking process could be sent to a bipartisan commission, which could ultimately result in partisan control of the process being decided by chance, under a tie-breaking drawing of lots.
Republicans have said Democrats pushed the new maps through when they did, simply to avoid the chance they might lose control of the opportunity to use the redistricting process to further cement their grip on lawmaking power in Springfield.
After the Census Bureau released its data in mid-August, Democrats moved quickly to use the new numbers to address the alleged imbalances in the June maps. The revised maps were passed at the end of August, and signed into law by Pritzker in September.
Democrats claimed the new maps should end the controversy and the court challenges.
Republicans and the Latino advocacy organizations, however, claimed the new maps simply repeated many of the mistakes of the June maps.
In their ruling, the judges agreed the legal dispute over the maps remained alive, particularly since the Democrats explicitly refused to abandon their defense of the June maps.
The judges agreed the Democratic lawmakers’ decision to plow ahead with the mapmaking process in June, without official Census data, produced unconstitutional maps.
Judges noted the districts in the June maps were significantly unbalanced, weakening the voting power of voters in many districts across the state and violating the lawmakers’ constitutional duty to respect the “one-man, one-vote” protections enshrined in prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
The judges noted, for instance, that the actual population differences among the districts could deviate by as much as 29%, far beyond the minimum deviations allowed by those Supreme Court decisions.
“Such deviations are particularly large … given the technological advances available to the General Assembly to enable it with greater precision to set the population per district,” the judges wrote. “The maximum deviations in the June Redistricting Plan exceed any limit tolerated by any case law.”
The judges further shredded the rationale advanced by lawyers for Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch and State Senate President Don Harmon, in defense of the June maps.
The judges particularly put little stock in the June 30 deadline. They said Oct. 5 is the real deadline under the state constitution to complete the legislative districting process.
Yet, Democrats opted to push through the unconstitutional maps, relying on bad data, simply to avoid the risk of losing control of process.
That, the judges said, is not enough to justify producing such unconstitutional district maps.
“To be sure, political considerations are not unconstitutional and courts are reluctant to wade into, much less to reverse, partisan maps, including those that amount to political gerrymanders,” the judge said. “And we are not so naïve as to imagine that any party in power would decline to exercise levers available to it to maximize its opportunity to retain seats in the General Assembly.
“While there is nothing legally wrong with this approach, it is not a proper rationale for violating constitutionally-required mandates, including the drawing of districts of approximately equal population. In other words, the General Assembly may not dilute a large percentage of votes to advance a preferred political outcome.”
And the judges also pointed out the Democratic lawmakers’ apparent refusal to take input from Republicans or anyone outside of the Democratic Party when drawing new district lines, even after the judges urged them to do so.
“Ultimately, Plaintiffs say, the General Assembly approved a new map a single day after publicly releasing any version of its amended map and within hours of releasing the version that it enacted into law,” the judges wrote.
However, while the judges struck down the June maps as unconstitutional, they said the court won’t reject the September maps, at this time.
Rather, the court would use those maps as a “starting point” as the judges move “toward the approval of a map for Illinois legislative districts for the next decade.”
The judges invited Republicans and the Latino advocacy organizations to submit alternative maps, as well, with an eye toward “carefully considering the legal challenges raised” in the legal challenges.
The judges gave the plaintiffs until Nov. 8 to submit their alternative maps and objections to the approved September maps. Democratic lawmakers have until Nov. 18 to reply to those submissions.
However, the judges said under no circumstances would they allow the maps to be drawn by a bipartisan redistricting commission, as sought by Republicans, even though the June maps were declared unconstitutional.
“All redistricting maps, in Illinois and elsewhere, are subject to judicial review, as they must comply with (at a minimum) the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act,” the judges wrote.
“But the law becomes effective with the Governor’s signature and remains so unless and until it is repealed or invalidated.
“The Commission does not come into play upon the striking down of a legislature-enacted plan any more than the General Assembly takes over if a Commission-enacted plan fails to satisfy the courts. Instead, the Commission amounts to an alternative process for producing an ‘effective’ map in the first instance if the political branches are unable to do so by the deadline.”
The Latino voters are represented in their case by MALDEF attorneys Griselda Vega Samuel, Francisco Fernandez del Castillo, Thomas A. Saenz and Ernest Herrera, of Chicago and Los Angeles.
Republican legislative leaders are represented by attorney Charles E. Harris II, and others with the firm of Mayer Brown, of Chicago, and attorney Phillip A. Luetkehans and others with the firm of Luetkehans Brady Garner & Armstrong, of Itasca.
The Democratic lawmakers are represented by attorney Michael Kasper, a lawyer well known for his association with former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.
Other firms representing the Democrats include Power Rogers,LLP; Latham & Watkins; Hinshaw & Culbertson; and Heather Wier Vaught. Wier Vaught is also an associate of Madigan.