Nicholas Stephanopoulos

Congress should just adopt maximum compactness from 2028 on and have done with it. Balancing multiple goals at once (party share, “communities of interest,” etc) means endless room for mischief. Just take the discretion out of the system.

This is a nice illustration of how Callais is being misread. Just where, pray tell, did it make race-conscious redistricting unconstitutional? Callais changed the *statutory* standard for Section 2 claims. But it didn't change the existing doctrine of racial gerrymandering.

Callais made explicit racial redistricting criteria unconstitutional. If a state law requires the allocation of power based on race, it violates the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Race may not be used to draw any legislative districts unless a specific violation of the Voting Rights Act is being remedied. This prohibition extends to school districts, state legislative districts, county council, Congressional districts or any line drawing exercise. The Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 mandates racial districts.

A federal gerrymandering ban sounds nice but how would that pass muster with the current Supreme Court? The majority made clear with Callais that they believe federal restrictions are unconstitutional.

Note: The original 1965 VRA wasnt applied to redistricting. Post 1990 census was the first use. Republicans begged conservative lawyers not to bring these cases bc packing Dem voters into majority minority districts helped the GOP.

Redistricting watch: Speaker Johnson backs the idea of red states redrawing House maps this cycle after Callais. “All states that have unconstitutional maps should look at that very carefully and I think they should do it before the midterms”