Illinois pauses redistricting effort after Supreme Court ruling

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois has paused a legislative redistricting effort after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday, but Gov. J.B. Pritzker promises that Illinois will push back.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map and ruled that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional.

Professor Jason Mazzone, director of the program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the decision imposes a very significant limitation on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

“The court came as close to holding Section 2 unconstitutional as it possibly could have come without taking that final fatal step. The ruling will radically impact elections all over the country,” Mazzone told The Center Square.

Mazzone said majority minority districts, whether created because of a court order or because states thought the Voting Rights Act required them, will disappear.

He said the short-term effect is likely to be chaos.

“States, now able to draw districts with a far freer hand, are likely to scramble to see if they can immediately get a new map in place. These new maps will trigger new rounds of litigation … voter confusion this election season is inevitable,” Mazzone said.

In response to the ruling, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, announced that a proposed state constitutional amendment on redistricting would not advance this legislative session.

“We will dissect this decision, find a path forward and continue to protect the rights of all Illinoisans. I would ask for patience and time for our state’s top legal experts to work through this,” Harmon said in a statement.

Harmon indicated that he expects the issue to be revisited in a future session.

State Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, said House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 28 by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, doubled down on partisan power.

“This is not democracy in action. This is the embodiment of the corruption of absolute power. It is wrong,” Spain said on the House floor last week.

Welch said in a statement that the Supreme Court eliminated the last check on extremists who seek to silence Black and Latino voices.

Pritzker said the high court ruling is an abomination.

“It is an attack on a crown jewel of our democracy,” Pritzker said.

Pritzker spoke at an unrelated event in Chicago on Wednesday.

“We’re not going to stand for it in Illinois. We’re going to push back. We have options for pushing back,” he said.

Pritzker suggested that the Senate could introduce new language and send it back to the House.

The Illinois Freedom Caucus said the Supreme Court decision addressed the very gerrymandering efforts that Democrats were hoping to codify into Illinois law.

“HJRCA28 is now, very clearly, unconstitutional,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement.