Michigan Voters Defend Citizen-Led Commission Map From Frivolous Republican Lawsuit
For Immediate Release
February 2, 2022
Contact
Brooke Lillard
Lillard@redistrictingaction.org
Michigan Voters Defend Citizen-Led Commission Map From Frivolous Republican Lawsuit
Washington, D.C.—Today, Michigan voters supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) filed a motion to intervene in the case Banerian v. Benson, a federal lawsuit being heard in the Western District of Michigan, in order to defend the independent, citizen-led redistricting process.
The lawsuit, filed by right-wing attorneys, includes a convoluted allegation that the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission violated the United States Constitution because it adopted a definition of ‘communities of interest’ that the plaintiffs simply do not like. As the NRAF-supported motion to dismiss makes clear, that kind of an allegation is not only not recognized under federal law, but is in actuality an end-run at the state’s new constitutional provisions. And, among other deficiencies, the claim fails to account for the fact that the Commission conducted a citizen-led, months-long process that considered thousands of public comments from Michiganders across the state.
“The disingenuous claims in this lawsuit are nothing but a thinly-veiled attempt by Republicans to have another bite at the apple in their campaign to undermine Michigan’s redistricting commission, which itself was the result of fair and reasonable reforms overwhelmingly supported by Michiganders,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRAF. “It should not be lost on the public that the political party responsible for drawing some of the most egregious gerrymanders in the nation a decade ago is now claiming that a map drawn through a balanced and transparent process, by dedicated citizens, weighing an incredible amount of public input, is somehow the result of arbitrary decision-making.”
You can read the NRAF-supported motion to intervene with proposed partial motion to dismiss and answer here.
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