Don't forget: after this election comes redistricting — and we may soon see a radically different way of redrawing state legislative districts in Missouri that doesn't take into account children, noncitizens and other residents who are not eligible to vote npr.org/2020/11/06/931…
2. Presidential elections come around every four years, but the consequences of redistricting are locked in for a decade.
We are talking about lines and maps that determine how much political representation each person living in the U.S. gets for the next 10 years.
3. In general, political mapmakers around the country have long drawn state legislative districts based on the total number of people living in an area as determined by the census.
It's an open question whether it's legal to redraw districts based on only eligible voters.
4. The Supreme Court left that an open question in 2016. The makeup of the court has certainly changed since then.
"That open question could be one of the big fights of this decade," @mcpli of @BrennanCenter told me.
@mcpli@BrennanCenter 5. GOP strategist Thomas Hofeller pushed for redistricting based on eligible voters bc it "would be advantageous to Republicans & Non-Hispanic Whites." We learned this through the legal fight over Trump admin's failed push for a census citizenship question apps.npr.org/documents/docu…
@mcpli@BrennanCenter 6. The Trump admin didn't get a citizenship question on the #2020Census, but it's been pushing ahead with using government records to produce the block-level citizenship data states would need to redistrict based on the numbers of eligible voters. npr.org/2020/05/20/855…
@mcpli@BrennanCenter 7. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing legal fight over who is counted in the numbers used to redraw congressional districts. The 14th Amendment requires the "whole number of persons in each state," but President Trump wants to exclude unauthorized immigrants npr.org/2020/10/22/919…
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Last night, Missouri voters passed a state constitutional amendment that could lead to the redrawing of legislative districts based on the number of U.S. citizens old enough to vote rather than of all residents. From Amendment 3: sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/Elec…
2. It's not clear exactly how "one person, one vote" will be interpreted when Missouri's voting maps are redrawn.
In general, states draw voting districts based on the total population, i.e., census numbers of every person living in an area, regardless of citizenship status.
3. Drawing voting districts based on the number of U.S. citizens old enough to vote "would be advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites," wrote GOP strategist Thomas Hofeller, who advocated for adding a citizenship question to census forms: documentcloud.org/documents/6077…
On Friday, the Census Bureau's internal experts released recommendations for how to comply with Trump admin's directive to create citizenship data that a GOP strategist said would be "advantageous to Republicans & Non-Hispanic Whites" during redistricting: www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2020/CE…
2. It's worth remembering the Census Bureau working group that wrote this technical paper was formed when the Trump admin was saying that block-level citizenship data (produced through a citizenship question on census forms) were needed to better enforce the Voting Rights Act...
3. ...and after the Supreme Court found that using the Voting Rights Act as the justification for the now-blocked citizenship question appeared to be "contrived," the Trump admin dropped that talking point and focused on redistricting. That history is summed up in this footnote:
BREAKING: A second federal court has blocked President Trump’s attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census numbers that determine each state’s share of House seats. The 3-judge court in California declares Trump's memo is unconstitutional. assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7274…
2. "The policy which the Presidential Memorandum attempts to enact has already been rejected by the Constitution, the applicable statutes, & 230 years of history," write 9th Circuit Judge Richard Clifton, District Judge Lucy Koh & District Judge Edward Chen in Northern California
3. The 3-judge court in California has issued a permanent injunction blocking the commerce secretary & Census Bureau from delivering to the president any report with info about unauthorized immigrants in each state and that's part of the decennial census. assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7274…
NEW: The Census Bureau's career staff will decide how much time it will take to prepare #2020Census apportionment counts and may not be able to meet the legal reporting deadline of Dec. 31, Al Fontenot, the bureau's associate director for the census, said during a press briefing.
2. The Census Bureau began softening the ground on whether it can still meet the Dec. 31 reporting deadline for #2020Census apportionment counts with this Oct. 16 statement:
3. As for the March 31, 2021 legal reporting deadline for state redistricting data from the #2020Census, Al Fontenot said the Census Bureau "cannot say for certain" right now if it needs more time. "We're constantly evaluating that," Fontenot added.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a #2020Census case on Nov. 30, increasing the potential for President Trump to try to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the numbers used to reallocate House seats while in office
2. Since the first U.S. census in 1790, the numbers of U.S. residents who are counted to determine each state's share of congressional seats have included both citizens and noncitizens, regardless of immigration status. npr.org/2020/10/16/917…
3. Here is the link to the #SCOTUS order that schedules oral arguments for Nov. 30 (which is already a packed day for the justices): supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
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