Urges Court to “strike a blow” against practice that “increasingly threatens our democracy”

WASHINGTON – Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and co-counsel today filed a merits brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark partisan gerrymandering case Gill v. Whitford. The brief urges the Supreme Court to strike down Wisconsin’s extreme partisan gerrymandering scheme which all but guarantees one party control of the state Assembly for the entire decade, irrespective of how the voters cast their ballots.  The case will be heard at the Supreme Court on October 3.

“Partisan gerrymandering is worse now than at any time in recent memory,” said Paul Smith, vice president of litigation and strategy at the Campaign Legal Center who will argue the case before the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court has the opportunity to help restore the integrity of American democracy by creating ground rules that safeguard every American’s fundamental right to vote and have it count.”

Wisconsin’s partisan gerrymander – created in 2011 by legislative aides and hired consultants in a secret room in a private law office – employed the latest mapping technology and data analysis to create a district plan that is one of the most extremely gerrymandered state legislative plans in the last four decades. Consequently, in the first election under the plan, Republicans won a supermajority of 60 out of 99 seats despite losing the statewide vote for the Assembly. In 2014 and 2016, Republicans extended their advantage to 63 and 64 seats, respectively, even though the statewide vote remained nearly tied.  As a result, for the first time in 31 years, a lower court—after a four-day trial—struck down the plan as an unconstitutional gerrymander.

Appellees argue that Wisconsin's gerrymander violates both the Equal Protection Clause by diluting the electoral influence of a targeted group of voters, and the First Amendment, by penalizing these voters because of their political beliefs.

“Partisan gerrymandering is a concern for all Americans, both Republicans and Democrats,” said Trevor Potter, president of CLC, and former Republican Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. “Across the country, lawmakers of both parties are seizing power from voters to keep themselves in control. We are confident that when the justices see how pervasive and damaging this practice has become, the Court will adopt a clear legal standard that will ensure our democracy functions as it should.”

The brief rebuts arguments advanced by the state, and highlights that the map was “crafted with an obsessive focus on partisan advantage.” It refutes the notion advanced by the state of Wisconsin that there is a neutral justification for the map’s large partisan tilt. The brief notes that several sets of maps, along with other evidence, demonstrate that neither efforts to comply with traditional redistricting criteria nor Wisconsin’s political geography can explain the map’s large and durable partisan skew.  Wisconsin’s 2011 map, the brief argues, clearly meets a three-prong test for a partisan gerrymander: it was designed with discriminatory intent; it has had a discriminatory effect; and there is no valid justification for the map other than partisan gerrymandering.

Amicus briefs in support of appellees will be filed on September 5, 2017.

Learn more about CLC’s efforts on behalf of the 12 plaintiffs in Whitford here.

Learn more about the redistricting process, how it works, and the everyday impacts of partisan gerrymandering on our democracy here.

Private counsel working with CLC in representing the appellees includes Douglas M. Poland of Rathje & Woodward, Peter G. Earle, Michele L. Odorizzi of Mayer Brown, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos of the University of Chicago Law School and Jessica R. Amunson of Jenner & Block.

Carson appeared at Trump rally in Phoenix; was introduced under formal HUD title

WASHINGTON – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released a legal complaint by letter to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) urging them to investigate a possible violation of the Hatch Act by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson on Tuesday night at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.

Under the Hatch Act, Secretary Carson is legally permitted to attend political rallies, but cannot use his official government title during the appearance. This prohibition prevents officials from mixing personal and official activities in ways that lends governmental support to a partisan political candidate. Tuesday’s event in Phoenix, Arizona was a campaign event paid for by Republican Party funds.

“Misuse of the government’s authority to support a partisan political candidate is an issue that should be taken seriously to deter future violations,” said Walter Shaub, senior director, ethics at CLC, and the former director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). “Failure to address this misconduct would send the wrong message. We’re in the unusual circumstance of the presidential election cycle having started only months after the last election, which leaves plenty of time for the violations to multiply if there’s no accountability.”

Shortly before the end of the Obama Administration, in April 2016, then-HUD Secretary Julián Castro was found to be in violation of the Hatch Act when he endorsed Hillary Clinton during a media interview in his government office. In its report on Secretary Castro, OSC wrote, “[I]t is a use of official authority or influence to affect an election when an employee uses his official title while participating in political activity.”

According to the Office of Special Counsel's website: "Federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation​."

Texas's Modified Version of the Original Law, SB 5, is Just as Discriminatory as the Original SB 14, Court Says 

A federal court in Texas today permanently blocked Texas latest version of its voter photo ID law, SB 5. Campaign Legal Center represents Texas voters in its challenge to the law in the case Veasey v. Abbott. 

A federal court had already blocked the original Texas voter photo ID law, SB 14, from going into full effect during the 2016 presidential election. During the 2016 elections, an interim process was put into place as a “stop-gap” measure, allowing voters without the required photo ID to vote if they signed a declaration instead. In April of this year, the federal court held that the original law, SB 14, not only harmed minority voters in practice but was passed with the purpose of discriminating against minority voters. Because of this unconstitutional and purposeful discrimination, the court held today that both SB 14 and Texas’s amendments to the law in SB 5 must be invalidated.

Judge Ramos of the Southern District of Texas said Texas’s latest voter photo ID law, SB 5, keeps the same limited forms of photo ID required under SB 14 and therefore carries forward the same “discriminatory features” of the original SB 14 voter photo ID law.

 “Time and time again, federal courts have made it clear that Texas’s strict voter photo ID law is discriminatory,” said Danielle Lang, senior counsel for CLC. “It doesn’t matter how many times the state tries to dress the law in sheep’s clothing – its intent is to discriminate and prevent hundreds of thousands of eligible voters from casting ballots. Now, Texas must return to nondiscriminatory ID practices in voting, which do not require photo ID.” 

Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Issue One filed six complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against two Atlanta-based television stations in the aftermath of the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, which was the most expensive U.S. House election in American history. Much of the battle was waged on the television airwaves, with several “dark money” nonprofits and super PACs spending millions of dollars airing TV advertisements in the district. Some of the major organizations involved — including the Democratic-affiliated groups Patriot Majority USA and House Majority PAC, as well as the Republican-tied National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — failed to properly disclose important information.

“Stations that air political ads have an obligation to ensure that viewers have relevant information about who is attempting to influence their vote," said Brendan Fischer, director of federal and Federal Election Commission reform at CLC. "The FCC must take action to protect the public’s right to basic information about the political ads that flooded Georgia’s airwaves during this year’s special elections.”

“Voters have a right to know who exactly is behind the advertisements that can strongly influence their vote,” said Meredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs and strategy at Issue One. “Without a firm commitment to transparency by the FCC — a principle both Democrats and Republicans agree on — we risk losing the openness and accountability that ensure a functioning democracy.”

Any ad that “communicates a message relating to any political matter of national importance” must be placed into a broadcaster’s political file, and the advertiser must disclose who is behind the ad, as well as list the executive board members, or highest-ranking officers, of the sponsoring group. The legal definition of “a political matter of national importance” includes any election to federal office, so the advertisements run during Georgia’s 6th Congressional District special election clearly qualify.

At least two separate Georgia television stations, WPCH-TV and WSB-TV, failed to require that Patriot Majority USA, House Majority PAC and the NRCC accurately and completely fill out the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) agreement form. On their NAB agreements, the groups falsely claimed the advertisements were not “a political matter of national importance,” which meant the groups failed to disclose required information such as the office, candidate and/or issue in question. It is time to set the record straight.

The station WPCH-TV failed to disclose information in a political ad sponsored by Patriot Majority USA.

Complaints:

• House Majority PAC (WPCH Station)
• NRCC (WPCH Station)
• Patriot Majority PAC (WPCH Station)
• Patriot Majority PAC (WSB Station)
• NRCC (WSB Station)
• House Majority PAC (WSB Station)