Model and Strategy
Campaign Legal Center's (CLC's) #FairMaps campaign helped change the national discourse on partisan gerrymandering and contributed to the groundswell of action around redistricting reform across the country. CLC’s Redistricting Reform project works toward the long-term goals of reducing partisanship in redistricting and ensuring equitable representation of all people in America through their electoral systems. We advance and support reforms that lift up voters’ voices and empower them to choose their representatives, not the other way around. Through the support of the Battery Foundation, CLC positioned itself as the premier legal organization for IRC policy and litigation.
Our project will further focus on the creation, implementation and protection of Independent Redistricting Commissions. For the five states that created IRCs in 2018, all of which CLC advised, we’re working to ensure proper implementation and protection. Implementation involves education efforts and turning organizers into commissioners and community members who actively attend hearings and submit maps. Protection involves defending both created and potential IRCs from legal challenges in the legislature, at the ballot box and in court.
Impact
Redistricting reform is critical to promoting responsive and accountable government. Every American should have a fair opportunity to participate in and affect our democratic process. Since the Supreme Court ruled last year that federal courts may not intervene to block partisan election maps, no matter how unfair they may be, state-led redistricting efforts remain the only stronghold against manipulation of district lines for partisan advantage. Well-designed independent redistricting commissions offer the best option to help ensure that the map-drawing process is more transparent, all Americans’ voices are counted fairly and politicians are accountable and responsive to constituents.
Through our redistricting project, we have already supported the creation, implementation and/or protection of IRCs in over a dozen states. Concretely, we gauge our impact through developing indicators for measuring the number of states we support, the depth and range of our state relationships, the number of IRCs for which we draft language, the number of IRCs that are successfully implemented and the success of our litigation to defends IRCs against legal challenge.
Leadership
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Trevor Potter
Founder & President
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Ruth Greenwood
Co-Director, Voting Rights & Redistricting