The Biden Justice Department warned Wednesday that it is monitoring states’ redistricting efforts and will go after any localities that draw discriminatory maps.
The department released guidance that it says is aimed at ensuring states comply with Voting Rights Act laws pertaining to redistricting and methods of electing governmental bodies.
“Where jurisdictions don’t draw maps that fairly enable all citizens, regardless of race or membership in a language minority, to elect the candidates of their choice — the Justice Department will act,” a Justice official said.
U.S. Census Bureau data revealed last month that Republicans have control of the decennial map-drawing process in 187 congressional districts, whereas Democrats have control in 84. The current round of redistricting also marks the first time since 1965 that the Justice Department does not have the ability to require states with a history of voter discrimination to submit redistricting plans for pre-clearance.
The Supreme Court in its 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision ruled that pre-clearance was outdated and no longer needed. Congressional Democrats have been trying to revive it since.
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said during a House Judiciary election subcommittee hearing this month that preclearance was the department’s main tool to prevent racial discrimination in voting laws.
Meanwhile, Justice has been trying to anticipate where the largest demographic shifts and changes to districts and election methods may be.
“We have been preparing for this for some time in terms of looking at states, counties, cities around the country — trying to glean information about where there may be issues,” the official said.
Most Voting Rights Act lawsuits filed by the department are racial vote dilution cases, which focus on whether a group of minority voters was unable to elect a certain candidate.
“Vote dilution may happen as a result of fragmenting the minority voters among several districts, where the majority can routinely out-vote the minority voters, or by packing the minority voters into one or a small number of districts to minimize their influence in the neighboring districts,” according to lawreview.com.
The DOJ did not predict how many challenges it may file, but the official said they expect “we will continue to do so just as we always have.”
“The vast majority of those are cases that involve local jurisdictions,” the official said. “So, city councils, school boards, county commissions and the like, rather than cases that involve, for example, congressional districts, although we do, of course, bring some of those.”
Even though the redistricting process is just beginning now that the census data has been released, redrawn districts in most states are set to go into effect beginning with the midterm elections in 2022 and will remain through the 2030 elections unless upended by a legal battle.
• Emily Zantow can be reached at ezantow@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.