Sec. 2403. Criteria for redistricting
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/bill/117/hr/1/rds/section-2403A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Under the redistricting plan of a State, there shall be established single-member congressional districts using the following criteria as set forth in the following order of priority: Districts shall comply with the United States Constitution, including the requirement that they equalize total population. Districts shall comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ( 52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq. ), including by creating any districts where two or more politically cohesive groups protected by such Act are able to elect representatives of choice in coalition with one another, and all applicable Federal laws.
Districts shall be drawn, to the extent that the totality of the circumstances warrant, to ensure the practical ability of a group protected under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ( 52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq. ) to participate in the political process and to nominate candidates and to elect representatives of choice is not diluted or diminished, regardless of whether or not such protected group constitutes a majority of a district’s citizen voting age population. Districts shall respect communities of interest, neighborhoods, and political subdivisions to the extent practicable and after compliance with the requirements of paragraphs
(1)through (3). A community of interest is defined as an area with recognized similarities of interests, including but not limited to ethnic, racial, economic, tribal, social, cultural, geographic or historic identities. The term communities of interest may, in certain circumstances, include political subdivisions such as counties, municipalities, tribal lands and reservations, or school districts, but shall not include common relationships with political parties or political candidates. The redistricting plan enacted by a State shall not, when considered on a Statewide basis, be drawn with the intent or the effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring any political party. For purposes of paragraph (1), the determination of whether a redistricting plan has the effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring a political party shall be based on the totality of circumstances, including evidence regarding the durability and severity of a plan’s partisan bias. Without limiting other ways in which a redistricting plan may be determined to have the effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring a political party under the totality of circumstances under subparagraph (A), a redistricting plan shall be deemed to have the effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring a political party if— modeling based on relevant historical voting patterns shows that the plan is statistically likely to result in a partisan bias of more than one seat in States with 20 or fewer congressional districts or a partisan bias of more than 2 seats in States with more than 20 congressional districts, as determined using quantitative measures of partisan fairness, which may include, but are not limited to, the seats-to-votes curve for an enacted plan, the efficiency gap, the declination, partisan asymmetry, and the mean-median difference, and alternative plans, which may include, but are not limited to, those generated by redistricting algorithms, exist that could have complied with the requirements of law and not been in violation of paragraph (1). For purposes of paragraph (A), a rebuttable presumption shall exist that a redistricting plan enacted by the legislature of a State was not enacted with the intent of unduly favoring or disfavoring a political party if the plan was enacted with the support of at least a third of the members of the second largest political party in each house of the legislature. No redistricting plan shall be found to be in violation of paragraph
(1)because of partisan bias attributable to the application of the criteria set forth in paragraphs (1), (2), or
(3)of subsection (a), unless one or more alternative plans could have complied with such paragraphs without having the effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring a political party. In developing the redistricting plan for the State, the independent redistricting commission may not take into consideration any of the following factors, except to the extent necessary to comply with the criteria described in paragraphs
(1)through
(3)of subsection (a), subsection (b), and to enable the redistricting plan to be measured against the external metrics described in section 2413(d): The residence of any Member of the House of Representatives or candidate. The political party affiliation or voting history of the population of a district. This section applies to any authority, whether appointed, elected, judicial, or otherwise, that designs or enacts a congressional redistricting plan of a State. If any of the criteria set forth in this section, or the application of such criteria to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remaining criteria set forth in this section, and the application of such criteria to any person or circumstance, shall not be affected by the holding.
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Sec. 2403
Criteria for redistricting
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