Redistricting and the Courts

Abstract

This article assesses the impact of three types of change factors—legal, political, and technological—on increases in litigation and judicial activism in the congressional and state legislative redistricting arena of the 1990s. Analyzing a data set composed of redistricting outcomes in the states, the author demonstrates that litigation challenging redistrictings is on the increase and that judicial activism has also grown. Judicial activism has occurred particularly where the courts have declared political impasses to exist and have imposed court-drawn plans. The author concludes by discussing new developments in law coming out of the recent redistricting litigation.