* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…

One of the things that I most certainly did not have on my 2021 legislative Bingo card last January was that an Oak Park liberal Democratic Senate president and the state’s first Black House speaker would be fighting multiple legal claims that their new state legislative district maps deprive protected minorities of their constitutional rights.

And the ante was upped last month when both men went on record opposing an attempt by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., Chicago Westside Branch NAACP and NAACP Chicago Southside to intervene in the redistricting case.

The brief was filed in U.S. District Court. The groups asked to intervene because, they claim, the reduction of Black-majority legislative districts in the new maps was unconstitutional.

The NAACP hoped to join lawsuits already filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the NAACP of East St. Louis that contend the maps were drawn in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects minority interests. Illinois Republicans have filed another lawsuit on the same grounds.

But attorneys for Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch argued that amicus briefs at the trial level are highly unusual, the motion was untimely (“due to the necessary yet breakneck speed of this case, Defendants are already tasked with responding to three plaintiffs’ submissions and nine expert reports in a matter of twelve days”) and would prejudice the defendants’ case (“by seeking to inject new claims and new relief into the case at this late stage, the NAACP denied Defendants the opportunity to test their claims through motion practice and discovery.”)

You gotta do what you gotta do in cases like these. I’m not trying to imply anything nefarious here, and both leaders have firmly maintained their maps will withstand constitutional scrutiny, but you gotta admit it’s very weird and a little unsettling watching all of it play out.

Meanwhile, the NAACP’s own filing mentioned the group had earlier sent a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker “expressing concerns over the lack of engagement with the Black community in the redistricting process and the negative impact of S.B. 927 on Black representation in the Illinois General Assembly.”

A letter sent by the NAACP to Pritzker, dated Sept. 22nd, complained the map legislation was “developed in a top-down manner, with little opportunity for actual engagement from community-based groups such as the NAACP.”

The NAACP also complained in the letter that it wasn’t able to adequately assess the impact of the new maps without weeks of work because of the data’s format.

“In short, the process used by the state deprived residents of the opportunity to have their voices heard.”

The organization then asked the governor to delay any action on the remap plan until Oct. 19th.

“This will give the NAACP and other groups a chance to take part in the democratic process and to provide you with maps that we believe are fair and preserve the voting power of Black voters in the state legislature.”

Pritzker, who won the 2018 Democratic primary partly because of strong support in the Black community and who pledged during the campaign to veto a politically partisan redistricting bill, signed the remap legislation two days after the NAACP sent its letter, claiming the maps “align with the landmark Voting Rights Act and will help ensure Illinois’ diversity is reflected in the halls of government.”

Again, weird and unsettling.

Oh, and, by the way, the legal pushback from the two legislative leaders did indeed prevent the NAACP from having a major say in the outcome of the redistricting case.

The three-judge federal panel hearing the case ruled last week they would accept the groups’ proposed amicus brief “for limited purposes.”

The court will consider the insights offered by the civil rights groups “into the history of racially polarized voting in Illinois.”

But, more importantly, the panel decreed the judges won’t allow the organizations to assert any new claims or challenge any districts beyond those already under review by the court.

The judges explained the remap plan has been out there in the open since the end of August, all of the existing complaints were filed by the middle of October, and the litigants “have been proceeding at a greatly accelerated pace” ever since. “That process was fast approaching its conclusion by the time the [NAACP’s] motion was filed, and there is no time for a do-over,” the judges wrote.

So, the super-majority legislative Democrats dodged a potentially harmful legal bullet on timing grounds alone.

…Adding… Just noticed this media advisory…

WHAT: A Federal lawsuit that may decide the future voting rights of thousands of East St. Louis voters for the next decade hangs in the balance as a decision is expected this week. Civil rights groups will hold a news conference on Monday, December 6 to give an update on the lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court challenging Illinois lawmakers and officials on a state redistricting map (SB 927) that blatantly dilutes the power of Black voters in the East St. Louis area. The case, which has been combined with two other cases also alleging statewide gerrymandering, is expected to be heard in a consolidated hearing by a three-judge panel in federal court sometime next week.

WHO:
Teresa Haley, President, NAACP Illinois State Conference
Rod Wilson Interim Executive Director, United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO)
Faith-Based Leaders from East St. Louis
Residents Impacted by New District Lines from the current House District 114, and future House Districts 112 or 113 will address the impact that the new law will reduce their voting power.

Plaintiffs: NAACP and the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO)
Legal Team: Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Cooley, LLP.

ONLINE: Lawsuit | November Legal Brief

WHERE & WHEN:
3 p.m., Monday, Dec. 6, 2021
600-698 Illinois 15, East Saint Louis

WHY: The NAACP and the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) are challenging Illinois lawmakers in a federal lawsuit that is set to be heard this week for unlawfully drawing racially gerrymandered districts that crack apart the Black community of the East St. Louis area in order to secure the election of a white incumbent in a nearby district.

The lawsuit alleges that race played a decisive role in the redistricting of Illinois House District 114, where one-fifth of the Black voting-age population was moved out of the newly redrawn district and thousands of white voters were added to the district. This was done for the benefit of white Democratic incumbents in neighboring House Districts 112 and 113, while jeopardizing the prospects of the candidates of preference of Black voters in House District 114 — the only Black district in southern Illinois. The complaint alleges that this manipulation violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“By substantially increasing the number of white voters and breaking up the historically Black population of House District 114, the Illinois General Assembly has seriously diminished the voting power of the Black community in East St. Louis. They have taken away Black voters’ right to elect the candidate of their choice,” says Rod Wilson, Interim Executive Director, United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) and former resident of East St. Louis.

The civil rights groups are filing the lawsuit on behalf of the East St. Louis Branch of the NAACP, the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP, and the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) against the Illinois State Board of Elections and its members, along with Speaker of the House, Christopher Welch, and President of the Senate, Don Harmon. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division.

The groups are seeking to freeze the redistricting plan and adopt a proposed revised map in order to protect voters’ rights — fixes that would cure the legal violations and keep the geographically compact and politically cohesive Black community of the East St. Louis area together.

…Adding… Related…

* Oral arguments to begin Tuesday in redistricting cases: On Thursday, though, attorneys for Harmon and Welch said they believed a full in-person hearing was needed, and the judges allowed that request.

* Race, Ethnicity and Partisan Politics Dominate State and City Redistricting Battles