Michigan redistricting commission approves new state House map for court review
Michigan's redistricting commission Wednesday selected a new state House map that it will submit to a three-judge panel for review after the court invalidated Detroit-based state legislative districts as unconstitutional.
After going back to the drawing board and soliciting public comment on its draft maps, the commission approved the map with the name "Motown Sound FC E1." It received the support of 10 out of 13 commissioners, including every Democratic member, four independent commissioners and two Republicans.
Last year, a three-judge panel struck down seven state House districts that run through Detroit as unconstitutional, finding that the mappers drew them based on race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. The panel — all appointees of former President George W. Bush, a Republican — did not rule on allegations leveled by the metro Detroit voters who sued the commission that the current state House map deny Black voters an opportunity to elect their preferred candidates.
The commission, for its part, has argued through its lawyers that the current state House map that pairs Detroit neighborhoods with suburban communities in Macomb and Oakland counties appropriately factored in voters' racial demographics to comply with federal voting rights requirements. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the commission's request to halt the redraw ahead of the 2024 elections while the commission moves forward with its appeal of the lower court's decision.
In the meantime, the three-judge panel ordered the commission to submit a redrawn state House map for the court's consideration by March 1 and barred the Secretary of State's Office from using the current lines in the upcoming elections this year. All 110 state House are up for reelection in November.
In addition to the seven state House maps struck down by the panel, the commission redrew seven additional metro Detroit state House districts. No Democratic incumbents were drawn into the same districts based on a review of their addresses in the 2022 candidate filings.
Michigan redistricting: US Supreme Court rejects redistricting commission's request to halt map redraw
How would the new map affect the partisan balance of the state House?
Every state House map the commission considered during its redrawing process skews slightly more Republican than the current map, according to two out of the four partisan fairness metrics used by the commission to evaluate its maps.
Under the current map, Democrats in the last statewide legislative election won a narrow majority in the state House for the first time since 2008.
In the 2022 election — the first held under maps drawn by the redistricting commission — Democrats won 56 to Republicans' 54 seats, giving Democrats a one-vote majority in the chamber. But Democrats temporarily lost that majority after two resignations and hope special elections in two strongly Democratic districts will restore their voting power.
What happens next?
The court will soon review the commission's proposed state House map. But if it finds that what the commission drew doesn't pass legal muster, the court will next turn to an alternative map drawn by a court-appointed special master.
The three-judge panel also ordered the commission to redraw six Detroit-based state Senate maps it ruled unconstitutional. But that mapping process will occur at a later date ahead of the 2026 elections when every state Senate seat is up for reelection.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan state House map proposal slated for court review
