Redistricting: ABA Resolution
To read a copy of the report supporting the resolution, click here.

Feb 14, 2008

ABA Urges Redistricting Overhaul: Statement of J. Gerald Hebert, Campaign Legal Center Executive Director

We are greatly encouraged that the American Bar Association (ABA) has joined the growing list of organizations backing the overhaul of the redistricting process. The urgent need to fix our hopelessly corrupted redistricting process continues to gather momentum. The resolution passed at the ABA's midyear meeting urges states to utilize independent commissions for redistricting and to remove the process from politically self-interested state legislators and incumbents.

When redistricting decisions are made for partisan reasons to protect one party's incumbents or to bludgeon one's opponents, it is the voters who suffer and our democratic process is diminished. The ABA's endorsement is another example of the fact that redistricting should not be a partisan weapon that one party uses against the other to solidify its political power. Democrats and Republicans alike have gained and lost seats unfairly through the heavy-handed tactics of state legislatures that gerrymander districts such that the electoral outcome is foreordained. The result is the elimination of competitive districts and with it the elimination of more moderate representatives who are more likely to be attentive to a broader community.

What we have seen in recent years are more extreme efforts by both political parties to manipulate the system to gain electoral advantage. Redistricting reform is needed to stop this abuse of our democracy.

Gerrymandered districts will remain a blight on our democratic process until we reform the redistricting process. There are growing reasons to place redistricting power in the hands of an independent authority that is structured to prevent partisan abuse. The need and desire for a more fair redistricting process has created a groundswell among organizations across the political spectrum and led to the creation of Americans for Redistricting Reform - an initiative slated to launch later this year to build public support and serve as a resource for state-level redistricting reform efforts throughout the country.
 

Congressional Redistricting Hearings Pushed by Reform Groups

Reform groups sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties this week urging them to hold hearings on congressional redistricting reform. The letter referenced two pending bills: H.R. 543, the Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act, introduced by Representatives John Tanner (D-TN) and Zack Wamp (R-TN); and H.R. 2248, the Redistricting Reform Act of 2007, introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren.

According to the letter, "House action is needed to ensure that competitiveness, accountability and fair representation remain healthy parts of our democratic process, and to keep the overly partisan and unchecked redistricting process from spinning out of control. Our nation will be irretrievably weakened if we continue with a system that undermines our representative democracy by allowing elected officials to choose their constituents, rather than a system where voters choose their elected officials."

The reform groups include the Campaign Legal Center, Committee for Economic Development, Common Cause, Council for Excellence in Government, Fair Vote, Reform Institute and U.S. PIRG.