A three-judge federal court panel has affirmed new boundaries drawn by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) for some state House seats.
“Federal law provides us no basis to reject the Commission’s remedial House plan,” the panel wrote in an 11-page decision released Wednesday.
In December, a federal court ordered the MICRC to redraw a previous map after it was determined that it diluted Black voting power in more than a dozen metro Detroit legislative districts. Detroit is 77% African American.
The panel had a tight timeline to draw seven new House districts, as the filing deadline to run in the 2024 election is April 23. The MICRC last month approved the Motown Sound FC E1 map, which ended up redrawing 15 districts.
Jamie Lyons-Eddy, co-founder and executive director of Voters Not Politicians, which spearheaded the 2018 ballot measure, said the group is pleased with the court decision.
“We at Voters Not Politicians have always had faith in the constitutional amendment we designed and most importantly, in the voters who support independent redistricting,” Lyons-Eddy said. “With this decision, the court has reaffirmed that faith and upheld the will of millions of Michigan voters who demanded an independent, transparent, citizen-led redistricting process when they voted for Proposal 2 in 2018.”
This story was originally published by Michigan Advance. Read more here: https://michiganadvance.com/2024/03/28/court-approves-new-michigan-house-district-map/
