Lawsuit Filed Against Illinois Voting Rights Act, Alleging Unconstitutional Use of Race in Redistricting

A new lawsuit announced on Monday alleges that Illinois districting criteria violate the United States Constitution by elevating race as a primary purpose in legislative line drawing. U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

Defendants are Democrat Gov. B. Pritzker, the Illinois State Board of Elections and its executive director Bernadette Matthews.

It argues the state’s practices run afoul of the Fifteenth Amendment and Section 2(a) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Illinois Voting Rights Act requires the creation of crossover districts, coalition districts or influence districts when drawing legislative districts pursuant to Article IV, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution.

The law defines a crossover district as one in which a racial minority or language minority constitutes less than a majority of the voting-age population but is potentially large enough to elect the candidate of its choice with crossover support from majority voters.

A coalition district is one where more than one group of racial minorities or language minorities may form a coalition to elect the candidate of the coalition’s choice. An influence district is defined as one in which a racial minority or language minority can influence the outcome of an election even if its preferred candidate cannot be elected.

Jeanne Ives argues that the Illinois Voting Rights Act mandates explicit consideration of race and holds a brazen impermissible racial purpose in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment and Section 2(a) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

She contends these statutory requirements make racial considerations a core purpose of all legislative line drawing in Illinois. Illinois’ General Assembly Redistricting Act of 2021 redistricted the legislative districts and representative districts for the state and incorporated racial criteria. Gov.

B. " His press release stated that "the Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 ensures redistricting plans are crafted in a way that preserves clusters of minority voters if they are of size or cohesion to exert collective electoral power.

U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais deeming Louisiana’s creation of a second majority-minority district an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. " The Federalist reported that the suit was brought in light of that Supreme Court ruling.

Ives and the foundation requested a court order declaring that the Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 violates the Fifteenth Amendment and Section 2(a) of the Voting Rights Act. They also asked the court to enjoin Illinois from acting pursuant to the ILVRA.

The Voting Rights Act forbids enforcing election procedures enacted with a racial intent or that results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race, according to the lawsuit.

The Illinois Voting Rights Act requires drawing district lines to preserve deliberate racial percentages, racial majorities and the deliberate preservation of racial influence districts, the complaint states. This, Ives argues, violates both the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act.