In a political power grab, the radical Democrats filed legislation that would change the long-standing fairness standard in the Illinois Constitution used to judge legislative maps. However, the Supreme Court shut it down. Illinois lawmakers punt remap amendment after SCOTUS Voting Rights Act ruling
House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 28 was filed by Speaker Chris Welch in response to concerns over a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana v. Callais. The proposal would rewrite Illinois’ constitutional standard for drawing legislative maps.
Under the current standard, maps must be “compact, contiguous and substantially equal in population.” Welch’s proposal would instead create a ranked list of five criteria.
HJRCA 28 would amend the Legislature Article of the Illinois Constitution on decennial redistricting to require Legislative and Representative Districts to be drawn, in order of priority:
(1) To be substantially equal in population
(2) To ensure that no citizen is denied an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of his or her choice on account of race
(3) To create, where practical, racial coalition or influence Districts
(4) To be contiguous
(5) To the extent practicable, to be compact. The current requirements are compact, contiguous, and substantially equal in population
Compactness is moved to the bottom of the list and qualified by the phrase “to the extent practicable.” House Republicans argue that change would significantly weaken the compactness requirement and point to their lawsuit filed last year which alleges maps passed by Democrats violate Illinois’ compactness standard in 52 of the state’s 118 House districts.