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The Voting Rights Act was enacted to make “the promise of the right to vote under the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution a reality, ninety-five years after [its] passage”. Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, sixteen states are required to submit any redistricting plans to the U.S. Department of Justice for preclearance. Preclearance is defined as the process of seeking U.S. Department of Justice approval for all changes related to voting. Section 5 of the Act requires that the United States Department of Justice or a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for District of Columbia “preclear” any attempt to change “any voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting…” in any “covered jurisdiction”.
The Supreme Court decided on January 20th to stay the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in the matter of West Virginia’s new congressional districts, meaning that upcoming congressional elections will be conducted in the new districts created by West Virginia’s legislature following the 2010 Census.
This year, the Rose Institute is proud to release an online preview of the 2011 Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey Executive Summary. The annual Survey uses comprehensive data about fees, taxes, and economic incentives to analyze the relative cost of doing business in 421 cities across the country. The nine-page Executive Summary preview offers an overview of the Survey’s Highlights, discussion of the 20 Most and Least Expensive Cities, a sample of the Executive Summary’s in-depth individual county analyses and useful GIS maps, and excerpts from its big-picture analysis.
On January 17th, Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) officially approved the state’s new Congressional districts. The vote was a major milestone in this year’s particularly tumultuous redistricting process. The Commission split along party lines, with the two Democratic members supporting the redistricting plan and the two Republican members opposing it. Independent Chairwoman Colleen Mathis cast her swing vote in favor of the plan, making the final vote 3-2.
On January 20th, the United States Supreme Court ordered a federal court in Texas to reconsider the maps it had drawn for the state’s legislative districts. The Court unanimously held that the lower court may not have used “appropriate standards” in drawing the new maps. Instead, the lower court had “substituted its own concept of the collective public good for the Texas legislature’s determination of which policies serve the interests of the citizens of Texas.” The Court remanded the case to the district court to draw new maps, this time starting from the plan created by the state legislature last year. Please see this earlier coverage by the Rose Report for a more in-depth analysis on the background of the case.
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