Republicans challenge Michigan’s redistricting commission in court

By S.M. | NEW YORK

WHEN KATIE FAHEY (pictured), a Michigan resident, founded Voters Not Politicians in 2017, she took aim at gerrymandering—the increasingly potent practice whereby politicians of both parties redraw electoral lines to maximise their party’s advantage. After gathering 425,000 signatures to get a redistricting-reform amendment on Michigan’s 2018 ballot, the organisation overcame opposition from well-funded Republican groups and won two court battles that aimed to scrap the proposal. Last year, Michigan voters approved the amendment by a 61% majority. But on July 30th, on the eve of the commission’s formation, several notable Republicans have coalesced to scuttle the plan before it gets off the ground.

In a novel complaint, 15 Michigan residents—shepherded by an affiliate of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, an organisation positioning the Republican Party for district-line drawing in the coming decade—are suing to stop the commission in its tracks. By limiting who may serve as commissioners, the plaintiffs say, Michigan would be violating the free-speech, free-association and equal-protection rights of hundreds of thousands of its residents. Scott Walker, the former governor of Wisconsin and the organisation’s finance chair, says the commission’s membership rule “punish[es] the people of Michigan for exercising those rights—or for being related to someone who has”.