The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for June 9, 2025

A three-judge panel dismissed a case June 6th by a group of Black Arkansas voters that the state legislature racially gerrymandered Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District. It’s the state’s fourth redistricting challenge since 2021.  

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023’s Alexander vs. South Carolina NAACP directed that when hearing racial gerrymandering cases, federal courts should, QUOTE “start with the presumption that the legislature acted in good faith.” The Arkansas legislature’s voting district maps have been challenged four times since 2021.

In 2023, the 8th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s radical ruling in a state House map gerrymandering case that Arkansas voters did not have a right to sue under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It ruled only the DOJ could bring a VRA challenge, and the opinion spawned copycat GOP suits which failed in other jurisdictions.   

The latest Arkansas challenge used provisions in the 14th and 15th amendments to argue the legislature unconstitutionally split Black communities in the 2nd Congressional District and dilute their voting power.  But a three-judge 8th Circuit appeals court panel found plaintiff Christian Ministerial Alliance had not proven racial gerrymandering, a higher bar than partisan gerrymandering, an outcome of the South Carolina case.   
There’s an awful lot of smoke from the Arkansas legislature’s gerrymandered voting districts, but no racial gerrymandering fire, at least according to the courts.  We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – (2024) U.S. Supreme Court Finds South Carolina Gerrymandering Case ‘Bleaching’ Congressional District Not Racially Motivated
American Redistricting Project – Arkansas Redistricting Process   American Democracy Minute – (2024)  Federal Appeals Court Denies Rehearing of Radical Arkansas Voting Rights Act Ruling Shutting Out Voters & Democracy Groups from Bringing CasesAmerican Redistricting Project – Christian Ministerial Alliance v. Thurston
Arkansas Advocate – Federal panel rules in favor of state in Arkansas congressional redistricting lawsuit
U.S. District Court – Order in Christian Ministerial Alliance v. John Thurston 

Groups Taking Action:

Christian Ministerial Alliance , Legal Defense Fund

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

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#News #Democracy  #DemocracyNews #RacialGerrymandering #Arkansas #CongressionalDistrict2 #14thAmendment

The post Arkansas Congressional District Racial Gerrymandering Case Dismissed by Federal Court Panel appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for May 29, 2025

In a recent report from Georgia, we told you about voters contesting a mass voter eligibility challenge by election conspiracy group True the Vote.   In another 11th Circuit courtroom that same week, a group of Black voters challenged the voting districts for metro Atlanta. 

The Georgia Recorder reports that a judge ruled in 2021 that after the 2020 U.S. Census, the Georgia legislature failed to account for growth of Black voters in metro Atlanta, and needed to include additional majority-minority congressional, state house, and state senate districts.  The current suit before a three-judge appeals panel contends that the court ordered maps drawn by the legislature in 2023 may not have met the judge’s requirements, and instead kept the status quo.  

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s brief contends that the Voting Rights Act Section 2 should no longer be in use.  He argues that the plaintiffs must prove that the motivation for the maps was racial discrimination – not legal under the federal VRA – and not for partisan political reasons, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is inherently a state issue.

Anti-voter arguments citing Equal Protection Clause, and “it was political, not racial gerrymandering” are increasing, in an effort to neutralize VRA protections for minority voters. 

Expect an opinion in the case in the coming months.   

We have more on the long history of the case at  AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.  

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Georgia Recorder – (2021)  State lawmakers ready to wrap congressional redistricting with a GOP bow
Brennan Center for Justice – District Maps Show How Georgians of Color Are Underrepresented in Local Government
American Redistrict Project – Georgia State Conf. of the NAACP v. Georgia
Georgia NAACP – (2023) Georgia NAACP calls for rejection of newly approved legislative maps in federal court.
Georgia Recorder – Long simmering dispute over Georgia political maps drawn after 2020 Census returns to federal court
Courthouse News Service – Battle over Black voter suppression in Georgia returns to federal court

Groups Taking Action:

ALPHA PHI ALPHA FRATERNITY,  NAACP Georgia, Brennan Center for Justice

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#News #Democracy  #DemocracyNews #Georgia #RacialGerrymandering #FairMaps #MajorityMinority #Atlanta

The post Federal Appeals Court Weighs Whether the Georgia Legislature-Drawn Majority-Minority Districts in Metro Atlanta Met Judge’s Order appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for May 27, 2025

Audio for this story won’t be posted until after 10 AM Tuesday. Go here to listen.

Five years into the redistricting cycle, we’re still litigating racially gerrymandered voting maps. Today, we’re looking at a principle called the “Gingles Test” that federal courts use when determining whether a gerrymandered redistricting map is a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. How that test is interpreted can determine whether minority voters can elect the candidate of their choice, or their vote is diluted by an anti-voter state legislature.

A group of Black voters sued the North Carolina legislature in 1982, arguing their voting districts violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by diluting their vote and keeping Black North Carolinians from electing the candidate of their choice.   

Before it came to trial, Congress clarified the VRA to say intentional discrimination didn’t need to be proved, just the EFFECT of discrimination was enough to be a violation of Section 2.

Thornburg v. Gingles created a three part test for federal courts to use when considering whether a VRA violation had occurred.  It stipulates:

• The minority group is “sufficiently large and geographically

compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district”;

• The minority group is “politically cohesive,” usually voting the same way; and 
• The “white majority votes sufficiently as a bloc, usually defeating the minority’s preferred candidate.”

As shown in the recent overturning of Louisiana’s new Congressional map with a second majority minority district, the interpretation of “geographically compact” and “politically cohesive” still leaves wiggle room for discrimination.  

We have more on Gingles and the VRA at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
BallotPedia – Thornburg v. Gingles
Charis Franklin, Fordham University Law – From Poll Tests To The Purcell Doctrine:  Merrill V. Milligan And The Precarious Preservation Of Voting Rights
The American Redistricting Project – Thornburg v. Gingles (1986)
Brennan Center for Justice – Breaking Down the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act Decision Out of Alabama
Louisiana Illuminator – Federal court tosses Landry-backed Louisiana congressional map

Groups Taking Action:
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Campaign Legal Center, ACLU, Native American Rights Fund

Check Your Voter Registration:

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
  

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #RacialGerrymandering #VotingRightsAct #VRA

The post Courts Use the ‘Gingles Test’ to Determine Whether Redistricting Violates the Voting Rights Act appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 20, 2025

Gerrymandering, the manipulation of voting district boundaries to engineer an election outcome which benefits a particular party, had a significant impact on control of the new Congress, according to a new report. 

The Brennan Center for Justice found over four of five Congressional districts were won by a margin over 10%, including 90 percent of the GOP House majority.   Within that number, 132 GOP winners were in districts with winning margins of 25% or more, and 112 by a Democrat.  

In comparison, only 37 districts nationwide were decided by five percent or less, and only 19 districts were competitive enough to flip.  

The Brennan Center points to North Carolina as a state which, after a more liberal Supreme Court was flipped conservative in 2022, replaced the previous court’s 7 to 7 competitive maps, with the legislature’s gerrymandered version, resulting in a 10 to 4 GOP Congressional seat advantage.   

The most effective solution to gerrymandering at the moment is citizen-led independent redistricting, which has been successful in producing fairer and more competitive maps in California, Michigan, Utah and a handful of other states. In November, Ohio voters rejected such a commission, due in part to an attempt by elected officials to derail it.   Brennan found that independent commissions, citizen-led or otherwise, drew only 82 Congressional districts this cycle, but those districts were three times more competitive. 

We have the Brennan Center’s report at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

The post Brennan Center Report Shows Gerrymandering’s Impact on Control of Congress appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 16, 2025

Special Note from the Host:   You may notice some slurring of my speech during this and upcoming reports. May 9th, I suffered an attack of Bell’s Palsy which has affected the right side of my face and impacts my speech.  This is being treated, and recovery is expected with 2-3 weeks of steroid treatments.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Pro-Voter Groups Again Challenge ‘Least Change” Congressional Districts in Wisconsin Supreme Court, After Outcome of April’s $100M Court Race

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

After the election of liberal-leaning Justice Janet Protasiewicz in 2023, Wisconsin state assembly and senate maps were challenged in the Wisconsin Supreme Court and subsequently thrown out as unconstitutional.  But justices passed on a challenge to the Congressional districts. They’re being challenged again.

With April’s election of liberal justice Susan Crawford, pro-voter groups are trying again for a fairer Congressional voting map.  In early 2024, the legislature ignored six fairer maps and adopted Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ “least-change” compromise map, later allowed to let stand by the U.S. Supreme Court.  GOP candidates were elected to 6 of 8 Congressional seats with only 50% of the statewide vote in 2024.  

Two challenges were filed May 7th and 8th, one by the Elias Group contending that the least change directive has no basis in the Wisconsin constitution, and the second by the Campaign Legal Center, argues that Evers map ignored traditional redistricting norms, split too many counties, and didn’t equally apportion the districts. 

A record $100 million dollars was spent by both sides in the recently Wisconsin Supreme Court race.  The current margin in the U.S. House is 220 Republicans to 213 Democrats.  

We’ve linked to the filings at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.  

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – (2023) Oral Arguments Heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Constitutionality of the the State’s Extreme Gerrymandered Maps
American Democracy Minute – (2024) After Cleaning Up Gerrymandered State Senate & Assembly Districts, the Wisconsin Supreme Court Passes on Congressional Districts
American Democracy Minute – (2024) In a Game of Chicken with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, GOP Legislators Pass Somewhat Competitive Redistricting Maps in Effort to Avoid Truly Fair Maps

Wisconsin Public Radio – 2 lawsuits challenging Wisconsin’s congressional map filed with state Supreme Court
Wisconsin Supreme Court (via WPR) – Elias Group Challenge to Congressional Districts
Wisconsin Supreme Court (via WPR) – Campaign Legal Center Challenge to Congressional Districts 

Groups Taking Action:

Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, League of Women Voters WI, Common Cause WI

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #Wisconsin #FairMaps #WISupremeCourt #SusanCrawford 

The post Pro-Voter Groups Again Challenge ‘Least Change” Congressional Districts in Wisconsin Supreme Court, After Outcome of April’s $100M Court Race appeared first on American Democracy Minute.