Federal judges uphold Democrat-drawn congressional map
A panel of federal judges on Thursday upheld a new congressional map drawn by Illinois Democrats but still referred to it as a “blatant political move to increase the number of Democratic congressional seats.”
The map, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law over the summer, preserves existing Democratic-leaning districts and creates new ones, while forcing several Republican incumbents to run against each other in primaries. Republicans had sued to overturn the map, claiming that Democrats drew only one Hispanic district when more were needed because of population growth.
“We agree ... that the crafting of the Adopted Map was a blatant political move to increase the number of Democratic congressional seats,” said Thursday’s opinion by a three-judge panel, including two Indiana Republicans. But the judges said Republicans could not prove that the map discriminated against Hispanics.
Democrats dominated Illinois’ mapmaking this year because they control the state legislature and governor’s office. The new map drew Republicans out of their districts and lumped incumbent GOP members together or threw them into Democrat-friendly territory
“We are disappointed with the court’s ruling today, especially considering the very serious issues we raised in our challenge to the Democrats’ map, including discrimination against the state’s growing Latino population,” said a statement from Illinois GOP members of Congress. “We are in the process of reviewing the decision and evaluating our options for future action.”
Nearly all 11 GOP members of Illinois’ congressional delegation had sued over the map. They alleged that not only would the new map unfairly wipe out Republican gains in Congress, it also would dilute the voting influence of the state’s growing Hispanic population. They had offered an alternative map to the panel.
New congressional districts are drawn every decade based on the latest population information from the U.S. Census Bureau; The slow population growth also cost Illinois one congressional seat, dropping the state’s delegation from 19 to 18.
Petition filing for congressional candidates starts Dec. 23.