Common Cause hosted a telephone media conference call on Evenwel v. Abbott, potential landmark case on redistricting and every citizen’s right to fair representation on Friday, December 4. You can listen to the 38 minute briefing here.

Speakers:

• Emmet Bondurant – author of Common Cause’s brief in Evenwel; founding partner at Bondurant Mixson & Ellmore LLP; successfully argued Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), which ended congressional malapportionment nationwide
• Peter Buttigieg – Mayor, South Bend, Indiana
• Kathay Feng – National Redistricting Director, Common Cause
• Harit Trivedi –Deputy City Attorney and Chief Election Lawyer, City of Los Angeles

Evenwel is set for argument in the Supreme Court next Tuesday, Dec. 8. Common Cause filed a “friend of the court” brief on its own behalf and organized 18 counties and cities to sign a separate brief. In this case, the plaintiffs seek to radically change how every state counts residents for redistricting purposes. If the plaintiffs succeed, states may be required to count only voters and make invisible in our democracy millions of people who live and work in our communities. Newly arrived residents who may not yet be eligible to vote in their new state or their previous state, permanent legal residents, children, and many others would be excluded.

This change would create a constitutional contradiction by creating different standards for the drawing of congressional and state legislative districts. In addition, it would put residents of communities with relatively high percentage of non-voters at a disadvantage when seeking funding for essential state services such as education, water, police, and fire departments.