Laws for Community districting
Federal
U.S. Constitution & 14th Amendment
Article 1, Section 2 (Apportionment and the Census) (Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("VRA")
- Passed by the 89th United States Congress at the height of the 1960s civil rights movement
- The White House increased its support for voting rights legislation after the March on Selma in March of 1965 and was signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965
- Has since been amended five times to expand its protections
U.S. Supreme Court
Reynolds v. Sims 1964 (one person, one vote case)
This case essentially set the standard for the notion of “one person, one vote” and asserted that legislative districts should be apportioned in ways that are very much closely, if not uniform in population.
This case essentially set the standard for the notion of “one person, one vote” and asserted that legislative districts should be apportioned in ways that are very much closely, if not uniform in population.
Thornburg v. Gingles 1986 (VRA standards in vote dilution cases)
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Shelby County v. Holder 2013 (Section 5--Not dead but dormant)
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Texas ConstitutionThe Legislature shall, at its first regular session after the publication of each United States decennial census, apportion the state into senatorial and representative districts, agreeable to the provisions of Sections 25 and 26 of this Article.
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Democracy Docket August 2021 "Nine Redistricting Cases That Shaped History" - www.democracydocket.com/news/nine-redistricting-cases-that-shaped-history/ |