Another group files lawsuit over redistricting in Arkansas

Betty Dickey looks over at the redistricting maps during the Arkansas Board of Apportionment meeting Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, at the state Capitol in Little Rock.  (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
Betty Dickey looks over at the redistricting maps during the Arkansas Board of Apportionment meeting Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, at the state Capitol in Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)


A lawsuit filed Monday in federal court by six Pulaski County residents, including two state legislators, challenges the congressional district map approved by the General Assembly last year.

The map disperses some 23,000 voters, most of them Black and urban, from Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District into the state's 1st and 4th districts, which are mostly white and rural.

The lawsuit, which names Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Secretary of State John Thurston and the state of Arkansas as defendants, accuses the state of diluting the Black vote in Arkansas' 2nd Congressional District through a gerrymandering method known as "cracking," which is used to disperse voters of similar interests among populations with which they hold little in common.

The plaintiffs -- Jackie Williams Simpson, Wanda King, Charles Bolden, Anika Whitfield, Democratic Rep. Denise Ennett and Democratic Sen. Linda Chesterfield, all of whom live in Pulaski County -- accuse the state of violating the U.S. Constitution, the Arkansas Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 by diluting Black voting power and influence through the newly drawn map.

Legislation enacting the map was introduced in the General Assembly last year, sponsored by Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, in the Senate and by Rep. Nelda Speaks, R-Mountain Home, in the House.

The complaint filed Monday said the ideal population count for each of the state's four congressional districts would be 752,881 residents, following the 2020 census count of 3,011,524 people living in the state.

The plaintiffs contend that the General Assembly determined that the population in the 2nd District in Central Arkansas and the 3rd District in Northwest Arkansas had gained population and would have to be shrunk while the 1st District in north and east Arkansas and the 4th District in south and western Arkansas had lost population and would have to be expanded.

The plaintiffs said the new district boundaries contain one major difference from the districts drawn after the 2010 census in that the Legislature deleted a large block of southern and eastern Pulaski County, populated primarily by Black residents, and redrew that block into Districts 1 and 4. To equalize the population in District 2, the plaintiffs said, lawmakers moved the entire population of Cleburne County into it. According to the U.S. census numbers, Cleburne County has 24,711 residents, 69 of whom are Black.

"Small changes were made in the boundaries of the other three congressional districts to accommodate the changes to the southern and northern boundaries of the Second District in order to give that district substantially more White voters and substantially fewer Black voters," the complaint said. The complaint also said that no explanation was given by the sponsors of the legislation for carving out those areas of Pulaski County and dispersing them into other districts.

When the bills were presented to Arkansas' governor after their passage in October, Hutchinson refused to sign them, saying he had serious concerns about the impact of the redistricting plan on minority voters. However, Hutchinson also declined to veto the bills -- which is a largely symbolic act in Arkansas as it only takes a simple majority to override a governor's veto -- allowing the law to take effect without his signature.

"While the percentage of minority populations for three of the four congressional districts does not differ that much from the current percentages, the removal of minority areas in Pulaski County into two different congressional districts does raise concerns," Hutchinson said at the time.

The lawsuit, filed by Little Rock attorney Richard Mays on behalf of the plaintiffs, asks the federal court to order the General Assembly to draw up new House districts that do not dilute the Black voting strength in District 2, or for the court to devise or select another plan that keeps Black voting strength intact.

Contacted by phone Monday evening, Mays said that at the heart of the lawsuit he has filed, while dealing with complex legal principles, is a simple issue.

"[The plaintiffs] believe [the Legislature] did a racial gerrymandering of the lower part of the 2nd District so that they divided up a heavily Black inhabited area in the southern part of Little Rock and down to the county line into two other congressional districts where their vote will be diluted and it will dilute their vote in the 2nd District," Mays said. "Basically, that's kind of the bottom line of it."

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. The plaintiffs are asking that a three-judge panel be put into place to hear the lawsuit.

On Monday, the governor said through a spokesperson that because he has not reviewed the lawsuit, he would not comment. Asked through his spokesperson if he still had concerns about the way the districts were drawn, the governor did not respond. Thurston, through a spokesperson, also declined to comment, giving no reason.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, whose office is responsible for defending the state in lawsuits, did not respond by Monday night to a request for comment. Messages left with English and Speaks were not returned.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky dismissed a case brought by the ACLU over the new state House district map that reduced Black-majority districts in the state from 12 to 11, despite population gains among Black residents that increased the overall Black population in Arkansas to 16.5%.

In his ruling, Rudofsky said that although the claim of discrimination appeared to have merit, under the Voting Rights Act only the U.S. attorney general may bring a lawsuit to contest claims of racial discrimination, despite more than 50 years of precedent in which private citizens have contested, and often won, such claims in voting-rights cases filed in federal court.

That decision has been appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

The dustup over congressional districts is not only happening in Arkansas. According to the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, as of Wednesday, a total of 54 cases had been filed to chal­len­ge congres­sional and legis­lat­ive maps in 21 states as racially discrim­in­at­ory or partisan gerry­manders.

Litig­a­tion has resul­ted in orders from state courts to redraw legis­lat­ive or congres­sional maps in Alaska, North Caro­lina and Ohio. A federal court also ordered a redrawing of Alabama's congres­sional map, but the Supreme Court stayed that order pending appeal.


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