How do we ensure equality of representation? Send us your e-mail to drshow@wamu.org. If three-fifths of all the electors voting on the question vote to ratify the revision, it becomes a new constitution of the state of Minnesota. Admired for its brevity and flexibility, the Constitution says this about the election of members of Congress: "The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators." And then there are also other legal prohibitions on racial discrimination. Friday, Sep 17 2021Mandates, boosters and global supply. 2 Governor, term of office. . [N.H. Rev. Thank you for joining me. 23, 2012, but the veto was overridden on Mar. Ct., Hillsborough Northern), © 2020 Justin Levitt First of all, the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and it was, in many ways, the most successful piece that civil rights legislation ever passed. In the 2000 cycle, ten New Hampshire towns were subject to preclearance under the federal Voting Rights Act. 2 -United States Constitution says if one commits a felony and serves time, voting rights will be returned. Redistricting and Representation argues that competition in general elections is not the sine qua non of healthy democracy, and that it in fact contributes to the low levels of approval of Congress and its members. Look at Oklahoma, for example. We have areas in Virginia in the southwest that are so sparsely populated that you're guaranteed to be 50 or 100 miles away from the center point of that district because they're so large, just because the population is so sparse. The history of gerrymandering predates the name gerrymandering and goes back to actually before the first Congress even existed. 43 Redistricting. Interested in visiting the State Capitol? It was by no means perfect. But what we have now in Virginia, which is very exciting, is technology is democratizing this process. Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the . drpodcast@wamu.org, 4401 Connecticut Avenue NW|Washington, D.C. 20008|(202) 885-1200, Mandates, Boosters And America’s Ongoing Vaccination Problem, Recognizing Those On The Frontlines Of America’s Longest Wars, The Texas Abortion Law And Concerns Over Transparency At The Supreme Court, How The U.S. Government Hid The Truth About Afghanistan. It allows you to one, be extremely precise. [New Hampshire v. Holder, No. Additionally, all of the state legislatures require that the seats are apportioned to districts having roughly the same population. Redistricting is the process of redrawing state legislative and congressional district boundaries every 10 years following the decennial U.S. Census. Over the years, particularly in the post-Civil Rights era, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Department of Justice have placed restrictions on the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts to protect the representation of racial and ethnic minorities (see minority vote concentration and minority vote dilution in the glossary). MS. DIANE REHMThanks for joining, us I'm Diane Rehm. Rep. Soper: Redistricting is one of those things that has been highly political all throughout history. The state House plan was challenged in state court, and upheld. It's restrictions on the redistricting process have two components. And the U.S. Constitution doesn’t provide many guidelines. 28, 2012. Four states–Virginia, New Jersey, Louisiana and Mississippi – have begun redistricting. Found insideErik J. Engstrom offers a historical perspective on the effects of gerrymandering on elections and party control of the U.S. national legislature. Committee Serial No. 8. Considers proposals to establish Federal standards for states in drawing congressional districts in response to Supreme Court ruling in Westburry v Sanders asserting the "one man one vote" principle. Now that the map is under consideration, redistricting advocates are hoping the map that results from three days of public hearings and more negotiation before the September 15 deadline will be more representative than they say it does now. This Constitution was framed by a convention of seventy-five delegates, chosen by the people of the Territory of Washington at an election held May 14, 1889, under section 3 of the Enabling Act. PERSILYAnd so while we're going to be sort of fascinated with the sort of modern art or q-biss component of redistricting over the next year, we should sort of look beyond that and sort of analyze what the motivations are and what the consequences are. REHMNate Persily, he's Beekman Professor of Law and Political Science at Columbia Law School. PERSILYSo we've finished the census for this 10-year period... PERSILYAnd now we're using the data that the census bureau has produced to draw districts in the various states. The Texas Constitution and Redistricting. 9, 11; In re Below, 855 A.2d 459 (N.H. 2004)]. For information on visiting the Capitol Complex, please visit pacapitol.com. Found insideThanks to generous funding from The Pennsylvania State University, the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other repositories. First, new districts must be drawn when a state gains or loses congressional districts as a result of the apportionment of congressional districts to the states. For state representative districts, towns or wards near the average population for one or more seats are to constitute whole districts; additional population may be combined in overlapping, or floterial, districts. But when it comes to partisan greed in the process or incumbent protection, for the most part, the courts are given a green light toward incumbent politicians drawing their own lines. The legislature also passed a state House plan (HB 592) on Mar. Does this provision allow the state constitution or the voters through a referendum to assign redistricting decisions to an independent commission rather than the state legislature? — U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 2, clause 3 "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. It sounds true, right? As part of our “The Constitution Today” series, we examine what the document says about drawing congressional and legislative districts and how court decisions have further shaped those guidelines. It's been my observation that much of the gridlock that we seem to have in Congress is due in large part to the gerrymandered phenomenon that we're talking about today. As part of our "Constitution Today" series, we look at what the document says about the process of redistricting and how court cases have furthered shaped those guidelines. [In re Below, 855 A.2d 459 (N.H. 2004); Town of Canaan v. Sec’y of State, 959 A.2d 172 (N.H. 2008)], No. Ct.), No. It adds a little, but it's a small part of a much larger phenomenon. O'BRIENAnd that gets into an interesting story that Tom and I were talking about out in the lobby, but again, it's pretty open and that's why we have a lot of opportunities to continue to talk about this issue right now. Sean, do you want to start? It's kind of like redistricting, you know, the people in charge of the process. PERSILYWell, not only is it not outlawed, it has a long historical pedigree as Sean was saying before the break. MANNIt's a noble aspiration, but Demetri, there is not a functioning democracy in the world without political parties there to help organize the interest, sometimes inchoate interest, of the public with the elected representatives working in a Legislature and assembly. A Democratic official said the Republicans' proposed Ohio redistricting map could mean only Republicans represent Stark County in the Ohio House. 21, 2002, but those plans were vetoed by the Governor on Mar. JIMThank you, Diane. Redistricting, generally. And turning to you, Nate Persily, when did the word district first come into play? REHMExplain what you mean when you say it's about politicians choosing their voters. We've stopped thinking of the common good. Good morning, gentlemen. The state legislative plan was challenged in state court, and upheld. It's part of the evolution of our culture to increase suffrage and increase freedom and increase liberty. An examination of the language of law in the area of political representation, this book considers the development and recognition of group claims brought pursuant to the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause in Supreme Court ... And so most -- over time, most of the states have had territorial districting. The updated second edition pays special attention to the significant redistricting controversies of the last decade, from the Supreme Court to state courts. But then in the next census, it fell back to 435, so that the size of the constituencies of members is now pushing toward 800,000, where originally it was 30,000. But it definitely -- Paul brings up a great point. Neither modification affected the towns covered under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and so neither modification was sent for preclearance. Go ahead, Nate. Stat. Table of Contents Article I Bill of Rights Article II Franchise and Officers Article III Division of Powers Article IV Legislature Article V Executive Article VI Judiciary Article VII Local Government Article VIII Education Article IX Corporations Article X Taxation and Finance Article XI O'BRIENYeah, but how do you effectuate that change. Visitor Information. REHMSo Nate Persily, why did districts come into play to begin with? The Constitution of Pennsylvania. And until such enumeration shall be made and then they lay out which states get how many members of Congress in the first Congress. This is not surprising given that the state document in its original form was almost fifteen times as long as its counterpart on the national level. Under the New York Constitution, the redistricting commission leads the way in drawing maps. The Supreme Court upheld current state and congressional districts in Texas in a much-awaited 5-4 decision on racial gerrymandering. The apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives is calculated every ten years using the method of equal proportions, according to the provisions of Title 2, U.S. Code. Text Size: A A A Print. 23, 2012, and precleared on Aug. 14, 2012. Constitution of Virginia. The Iowa Constitution says . Article 1, Section 2 of the document states only how to choose the number of lawmakers. REHMWow, you know, it all began way back there. We just found that if it's just individuals running, how do they then come together and arrive at decisions that reflect popular preferences when the public in most cases hasn't really given much thought to any of those issues? And so it's a bigger problem. ", (202) 854-8851 A convention called to revise this constitution shall submit any revision to the people for approval or rejection at the next general election held not less than 90 days after submission of the revision. For information on visiting the Capitol Complex, please visit pacapitol.com. Second, even if the number of districts does not . Upper House: > How does redistricting make Congress equally representative of all the people? We'll have more in our series on "The Constitution Today." This opens the door to considerable, let us say, creativity (some call it gerrymandering) when drawing the shapes of congressional and state legislative districts. It allows you to do two things. Nate Persily of Columbia Law School, Tom Mann of the Brookings Institution, Sean O'Brien of James Madison's Montpelier. And as we've -- you know, and the fact that the Voting Rights Act and the issues surrounding it are providing for continuing discussion over race and representation, it's not new. Specifically, Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states: New Hampshire’s congressional and state legislative lines are drawn by the legislature, as a regular statute, subject to gubernatorial veto. 23, 2012. Patrick Henry arranged for James Madison not to get elected to the Senate because at that time, the Senate was chosen by the members of the state legislature. "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers..." [Article I, section 2]. I want to point listeners and Sean to our website here at Columbia, drawcongress.org, where our students are actually doing that and drawing congressional districts for the entire country. Nate. The challenge, though, is how do you explain polarization in the U.S. Senate? Tuesday, Sep 07 2021The Supreme Court's Texas abortion decision has shined a light on the justices' increasing reliance on a "shadow docket." I believe that one of the biggest problems we have with Congress and the divided the -- partisanship we have is that so many of the gerrymandering has made -- so many districts are predetermined to be Republican or Democrat. In American government, states' rights are the rights and powers reserved by the state governments rather than the national government according to the U.S. Constitution.From the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to the Civil War in 1861 to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, to today's marijuana legalization movement, the question of the rights of the states to govern themselves has . ANNOUNCER"The Diane Rehm Show" is produced by Sandra Pinkard, Nancy Robertson, Susan Nabors, Denise Couture, Monique Nazareth and Sarah Ashworth. It’s a grueling process that’s often politically charged. A congressional act enacted in 1967 requires that representatives be elected from single-member districts, except when a state has a single representative, in which case one state-wide at-large election be held. By federal law, redistricting must occur following a census for two reasons. Committee Serial No. 9. O'BRIENDemetri is like George Washington. This book provides a detailed analysis of the politics of racial redistricting, a topic of particular concern in light of recent federal court cases. The book is divided into two parts. Thank you all so much. A suit against an adopted redistricting plan may be brought at any time under the federal or state constitution or federal law. A suit alleging that a plan does not meet Texas constitutional requirements is ordinarily filed in state court. A suit alleging that a plan violates federal law is ordinarily filed in federal district . Therefore, apportionment is the original legal purpose of the decennial census, as intended by our Nation's Founders. Let us know your thoughts. O'BRIENAnd then with technology, they were able to draw finer and finer lines, you know, putting one side of a street in one district and another side of a street in another district based on voting patterns. So it was the states that were given the authority to decide how those representatives would be elected. 2, arts. Both plans were precleared on September 5, 2002. To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Diane talks to James Kitfield, author of the new book, "In The Company Of Heroes.". . The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, for example, ruled last year that the state's districting map violated the state's constitution. That is one of the cases coming... PERSILY...Shelby County, Ala. And then there's a case coming out of the City of Kinston in North Carolina, both challenging constitutionality of Section V of the Voting Rights Act. It's an e-mail from Paul in Massachusetts who says, "I'm in Congressman Neal's district in Massachusetts. pt. The legislature redrew some of the state Senate lines (HB 264) on May 28, 2004, and some of the state Representative lines (HB 1292) on Apr. Florida redistricting according to language would be a violation of the Florida's Constitution . Visitor Information. Listening to your program, I'm overwhelmed by the intellectual quality. Georgetown University's Lawrence Gostin talks about what is legal -- and what might be most effective -- when it comes to getting Americans vaccinated. PERSILYBut what happens there is that the parties sort of organize themselves, despite the fact that there's non-partisan Legislature nominally. Redistricting Criteria. When redistricting, state legislatures or redistricting commissions are provided certain criteria with which to draw the lines. It's not as complicated as they make it seem. And the struggles to adequately represent racial minorities in the redistricting process are ones that are age old. How does gerrymandering affect democracy? The convention met at Olympia on the fourth day of July, 1889, and adjourned on the twenty-second day of August, 1889. CONSTITUTION. MANNDiane, a good illustration of that is our neighboring state or Commonwealth of Virginia, which is right now in the midst of redrawing state and congressional districts. And so what that means is that districts are drawn in order to balance out the size . REHMSean, just how contentious was that debate with the framers over representation? Redistricting is the process by which new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn. Then-Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, looks on as the General Assembly's redistricting committee works on new congressional maps in . Mayor Boomberg here in New York was trying to advocate for a non-partisan election and at many local levels, we do have non-partisan elections, but in -- you know, inevitably, the national parties and the state parties do sort of get their talons into the process and organize it in such a way to affect elections and then also to affect voting. PERSILYAnd so, I -- you know, the students are putting up maps for all the congressional plans in the country and we invite others to send us nonpartisan maps as well. (projected). John Adams and the Framers of the Constitution thought that legislative bodies should be "an exact Portrait, a Miniature, of the People at large." Redistricting allows districts to be rebalanced, ensuring to the greatest extent possible that all districts are both equally populated and representative. Over time, the population of a voting district may wax or wane. And so his friends were saying, James you have got to come back and campaign in your district because the district that has been drawn for you, as described by one person as having 1,000 eccentric angles and it was drawn to put him in the same district with James Monroe who was an anti-Federalist at the time. Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that an apportionment of representatives among the states must be carried out every 10 years. The Census Requirement The Census Clause "reflects several important constitutional determinations: that comparative state political power in the House would reflect comparative population, not comparative wealth; that comparative power would shift every 10 years to reflect population changes; that federal tax authority would rest upon the same base; and that Congress, not the states, would . COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Late Wednesday at the Statehouse, the Ohio Redistricting Commission passed new state senate and house maps with a 5-2 partisan vote. O'BRIENIt's very challenging. REHMAnd for this hour of our "Constitution Today Series," we're talking about redistricting, what's going on in states around the country even as we speak. Stat. Redistricting Criteria. What does the Constitution say about redistricting? And again, the technology was so expensive that most of us couldn't see that process. What I think all of us are saying is don't let the political self-interest of those in office dominate that whole process. . Call 202-885-1200 for more information. First to Sean in Jacksonville, Fla. Good morning, you're on the air. The Texas Constitution provides many more details in its specification of government structure and procedures than does the U.S. Constitution. This Constitution was framed by a convention of seventy-five delegates, chosen by the people of the Territory of Washington at an election held May 14, 1889, under section 3 of the Enabling . And the map was designed to ensure that all of them would be re-elected by safer margins. In Massachusetts, I'm not as familiar with, but it's a fairly densely populated state, it's not too hard to imagine drawing a more compact district. and critics say its structure — with most appointees designated by the party leaders in the . Amendment 3 weakens the state constitution's protections for communities of color, relaxes its partisan fairness requirement, and deemphasizes drawing politically competitive districts. All states must comply with the federal constitutional requirements .
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