CASE SUMMARY
On October 15, 2021, a group of civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Elections, its members, and the Illinois General Assembly’s legislative leaders challenging the state’s enacted state House redistricting plan as diluting Black voters’ voting strength in violation of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”) and as racial gerrymanders in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments. They sought a judicial declaration the challenged districts were unconstitutional and unlawful, an injunction barring the plan from use in future elections, and for the court to require a new, valid plan be enacted.
- On December 30, 2021, a three-judge district court panel upheld the plan as lawful, finding there was sufficient evidence of crossover voting to defeat the plaintiffs’ § 2 claim and rejecting their racial gerrymandering claim on the grounds the legislature’s predominant consideration was partisan, not racial, gerrymandering, which SCOTUS had held to be nonjusticiable in federal courts.
CASE LIBRARY
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division - No. 1:21-cv-5512