The Headlines
I have excellent news to share! The three-judge federal panel has decided that the Michigan House district maps (otherwise known as Motown Sound E1) submitted by the MICRC* will be used for the 2024 elections and beyond. In their decision, they recognized the public support for the map, and that the voided districts had been completely redrawn, now running east-west instead of in “spokes” that extended into Oakland and Macomb counties.
The Details
After weeks of work, including mapping sessions, town halls, and public hearings, the redistricting commission submitted Motown Sound FC E1, a mapping plan that responded to public comment, addressed the issues identified by the court, followed constitutional criteria, and received broad support from the people who live in the affected districts.
Reviewing Special Master Bernard Grofman, a recognized impartial expert, submitted his court-ordered report where he “did not identify major flaws with the MI-IRC map that would suggest it failed to address the race-related constitutional concerns of the Court.”
The plaintiffs in Agee v Benson made several weak arguments against the commission’s remedial plan, which the court dismissed in turn in its decision released yesterday:
- Plaintiffs said that the MICRC had “outsourced” the map to a member of the public. The court found (as Voters Not Politicians argued) that Detroit resident Chris Gilmer-Hill actually revised a map built by the commission, and called the plaintiffs’ allegation “hyperbole.”
- Plaintiffs argued that the remedial map favors incumbents, resulting in a map that “perpetuates the discriminatory effect” of the Hickory plan. In response, the court said “That argument assumes a degree of passivity among Detroit-area voters that finds little support in the record here.”
- The plaintiffs said that the remedial plan “possibly” violated the Voting Rights Act. But according to the court, “the plaintiffs make close to zero effort to show that the remedial plan actually violates the VRA.” Elsewhere in the decision, the court notes that the remedial plan created three majority-Black districts, where there were none in the seven voided districts in the Hickory plan.
- Plaintiffs argued that in five districts in the remedial mapping plan, the MICRC had “impermissibly sorted voters on the basis of race.” The court noted that three of those districts were not among those voided by the court, and that none of the plaintiffs have standing because they don’t live in those districts. On the remaining districts (10 and 12), the court refers to the record, which shows that changes there were based on multiple public comments, and concludes that those districts are “opportunity to elect” districts for Black voters.
According to the court: “… in six of the seven districts at issue here, African-American voters will have markedly more power to elect their candidate of choice in 2024 than they did in 2022.”
What’s Next
This ruling is a win for Detroiters, for Michiganders, for the MICRC, and for the future of independent redistricting in states across the country, but the MICRC still needs to adopt remedial maps for the Michigan Senate. The commission has proposed a timeline that starts in mid-April and ends in early August, but the plaintiffs and the court still need to come to an agreement.
Voters Not Politicians is already preparing for this next phase. We’ve shared a memo with the MICRC detailing our observations of the House redraw and suggestions on how to improve the process during the Senate redraw. We are also preparing educational resources for residents of the affected state Senate districts and planning a second digital campaign to engage the public in the redraw.
Want to know more about the redraw process? Take a look through our previous weekly updates here.
*Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission
Want to receive these updates in your inbox? Use this link to join our weekly update list.
