Colorado redistricting unconstitutional

While the Texas redistricting battle has gotten most of the attention, it's not the only state in which Republicans were trying to push a new redistricting plan through that would favour Republican candidates. They had also pulled a similar stunt in Colorado earlier this year. According to the Washington Post, however the Colorado State Supreme court has held that the redistricting effort is unconstitutional as the Colorado constitution specifies that redistricting will occur once every 10 years in response to new census data.

In addition, the Court criticized the strategy because of the impact it might have on elected officials if they know their districts could be changed at any time.

"If the districts were to change at the whim of the state legislature, members of Congress could frequently find their current constituents voting in a different district in subsequent elections," Mullarkey wrote. "In that situation, a congressperson would be torn between effectively representing the current constituents and currying the favor of future constituents."

The Colorado decision will not have any direct impact on the redistricting disputes underway in other states, as it deals only with the Colorado state constitution. It is possible, however, that other justices may be influenced by the reasoning the Colorado justices used in regards to the public policy aspects of mid-decade redistrictings. There is also a case pending before the US Supreme Court that has the potential to "try to define how large a role pure partisan advantage in a state can play in drawing election maps."

Posted by thorswitch at December 1, 2003 11:37 PM | TrackBack