The redrawing of political boundaries after each census has become a windfall for the legal industry, with the process of redistricting now largely settled in courtrooms.

 

In more than half of the states, litigation has been filed to challenge new district maps, often on grounds that the new lines illegally favor one political party or they discriminate against minorities. In New York, the battle is over whether vote-eligible prisoners can list their pre-incarceration addresses as their voting precinct. In Texas, there are no less than eight separate redistricting cases making their way through federal courts, while Illinois and Nevada have three each.

 

In some cases, partisanship has made it impossible for the state legislature and governor to come up with a plan, forcing politicians to ask the courts to draw the maps. This is happening in Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada and New Mexico.

 

So far 28 states have litigation pending because of redistricting, according to Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who studies redistricting.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Litigation in the 2010 Cycle (Loyola Law School)