Federal court throws out Democrats' initial legislative district remap, will consider revisions

Dean Olsen
State Journal-Register
The Illinois State Capitol is seen in this undated file photo.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify and correct descriptions of several issues discussed in the federal court ruling.

* A three-judge federal court panel from the Northern District of Illinois ruled unconstitutional the initial map passed by the General Assembly in May and signed into law in June. The panel didn’t throw out the amended map that was passed by the legislature in August and signed into law in September.

* The court didn’t order Democrats who control the General Assembly to submit to the court suggested changes to the maps Democrats finalized in May and September.

* The court didn’t order revisions to the September map. The court said it will consider proposed changes to the map in November.

Gov. JB Pritzker and Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly suffered a legal setback Tuesday when a federal court threw out an initial new state legislative district map passed in May that favored Democrats.

A three-judge panel of U.S. District Court judges from the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois said the map approved in the spring with no Republican votes violated the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

More:General Assembly leaders to convene special session for potential legislative map changes

The court ordered those challenging the map — Republican leaders in the General Assembly and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund — to submit proposed changes in November.

Democrats will be allowed to respond to the proposals before the court weighs in on the legality of an amended map approved by the legislature in August and signed by Pritzker, a Democrat, in September.

The next court hearing is scheduled Nov. 5. The court said the approved map can't be used for elections in 2022 and beyond until the dispute is resolved.

Republican leaders Jim Durkin in the House and Dan McConchie in the Senate issued a joint statement that said: “Today’s ruling is a victory for Illinois citizens, advocacy groups and communities of interest.

Gov. JB Pritzker, shown here earlier this year, in September signed into law the revised state legislative district maps that lawmakers passed in August.

"During this process, the Republican caucuses consistently demanded transparency and fairness in mapmaking, which were rejected by the Democrats and Gov. Pritzker. The court’s ruling validates all the concerns that were raised during the Democrats’ unconstitutional attempt to gerrymander Illinois.”

There were no immediate responses to the ruling from Pritzker, a Democrat who signed the map into law, or from House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside.

Federal lawsuit: New state legislative map undermines Black voters in East St. Louis

Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, released a statement that said the updated boundary map signed into law in September still stands.

“I am gratified that the court recognized that the General Assembly, in unique and unprecedented circumstances, did what we could do in May to fulfill our constitutional obligations, and did what we should do in September to ensure our maps are constitutional,” Harmon said.

But Republicans say they are confident that the federal court, after Tuesday’s ruling, will end up ordering changes in the September map.

The ruling came a day before committees in the House and Senate are scheduled to hold hearings in Springfield on proposals for new district boundaries for Illinois’ 17 U.S. House districts. Democrats have drawn a new map for congressional district boundaries based on 2020 Census data.

The House hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday in Room 114 of the Capitol. The Senate hearing is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in Room 212 of the Capitol. The public can attend in-person or view the proceedings online at ilga.gov.

The federal judicial panel criticized Democratic lawmakers’ use of American Community Survey population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau in drawing the initial map passed in the spring.

The fact that Democratic lawmakers later tweaked the map based on 2020 data in August and Pritzker signed that amended map into law the following month didn't negate the legal issues that led to Tuesday's ruling, the judges said.

The court said the Census Bureau itself advised state legislatures not to use ACS estimates in redistricting and instead wait for delayed but official 2020 Census population counts released late in the summer.

The population totals for the initial map’s legislative districts veered in population too much from the official population counts to pass constitutional muster, the court said.

The judges rejected Democrats’ argument that they faced a June 30 constitutional deadline for approving a new map so they used ACS estimates.

Waiting beyond June 30 would have transferred authority to a bipartisan commission, based on a section of the Illinois Constitution. If that commission deadlocked, control over the map-making process would have hinged on an additional Republican or Democrat added to the commission based on a name drawn from a hat.

“Neither the text nor the structure of the Illinois Constitution mandates that the redistricting process be completed by June 30,” the judges ruled. “The constitution contemplates that in some circumstances, the General Assembly will not enact a plan by June 30, and in such cases provides the commission as a back-up.

“Four of the last five Illinois redistricting maps — all but the 2010 map — were drawn by a commission, not by the General Assembly." the judges said. "The reasons offered by (Democrats) show that they could have waited for the Census data in August 2021 before producing the maps. The absence of such a compelling reason suggests that defendants were motivated by a desire to avoid a commission.”

The ruling continued: “To be sure, political considerations are not unconstitutional and courts are reluctant to wade into, much less to reverse, partisan maps, including those that amount to political gerrymanders. … And we are not so naïve as to imagine that any party in power would decline to exercise levers available to it to maximize its opportunity to retain seats in the General Assembly.

"While there is nothing legally wrong with this approach, it is not a proper rationale for violating constitutionally-required mandates, including the drawing of districts of approximately equal population. In other words, the General Assembly may not dilute a large percentage of votes to advance a preferred political outcome.”

Contact Dean Olsen: dolsen@gannett.com; (217) 836-1068; twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.