DETROIT – 13 Metro Detroit state House and Senate seats have to be redrawn. That was the ruling from a federal court panel that found the seats as drawn are unconstitutional.
The judges found the experts hired by Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission gave them bad advice and so diluted the Black vote the seats don’t pass the legal smell test.
Background: Judge orders voting maps to be redrawn in Metro Detroit
House Districts 1, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14 have to be redrawn, and Senate Districts 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, and 11.
The consortium of Detroit Democrats who sued over this issue and won will be submitting a brief to the court on Tuesday, Jan. 2, which will discuss what they think the next steps should be. Then all parties involved head to federal court on Friday to get instructions from the judges on how to proceed. One of the options is for the court to appoint a special master to oversee the process.
At least one of the redistricting commissioners wanted to fight the federal court’s ruling and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, after a closed-door meeting Thursday, Dec. 27, with the commission’s attorney, no vote took place. Not enough commissioners returned to the open meeting which means they didn’t have a quorum and were unable to vote.