This week state republicans filed suit against the Michigan Citizens Redistricting Commission, which is tasked with redrawing the state’s political district lines for 2022.
Capitol Correspondent Cheyna Roth joined us to talk about what happened and how we got here.
Ben Thorp: Republican this week filed a suit against the Citizen Redistricting Commission. I’m wondering if you can talk to me - maybe start with what is this redistricting commission and what does it do?
Cheyna Roth: This is essentially Prop 2, which if anyone remembers their ballot from last year this was one of the ballot initiatives that people voted on. This is the one that created this independent redistricting commission that is in charge of redrawing the states district lines. It had a very rocky road to even get on the ballot and now there is this lawsuit saying hold up this commission is actually unconstitutional.
Thorp: Maybe it’s worth mentioning that rocky road that you are talking about was Republicans tried to keep it from making it to the ballot, is that correct?
Roth: Absolutely this was something that was fought all the way up to the Michigan Supreme Court. This is something that republicans were really fighting tooth and nail in part because they had been the ones to draw these lines for so long. For people who are unaware of how we used to draw the lines essentially it would go through like any other bill. The legislature would sit down, it would craft these lines, it would vote on them and then the governor would have to sign off on them. Our most recent lines were drawn by a republican majority legislature and approved by a republican governor.
Thorp: And to be clear groups like Voters Not Politicians who helped get that on the ballot would argue that having politicians draw their own district lines allowed them to draw their district lines in ways that would help them get into the legislature.
Roth: That was absolutely the allegation. What’s really interesting about this lawsuit that was filed very recently is that the commission itself is designed so that politicians are very far removed from the process. You can not even be a family member to someone who has been involved in politics, like a close family member. If your brother or your mother for example was a legislative staffer you couldn’t be on this commission. It also kept out immediate politicians, so not just senators or representatives but also their aids or people who were lobbyists and essentially what the group who is filing this lawsuit is saying is actually look that’s not ok because you are keeping out such a huge swath of people who would not be allowed to be on this commission. They are saying that is their problem which in part is the whole spirit of the commission. So it’s really interesting how they are going about this.
Thorp: What is the argument here, is it that this is a free-speech violation by keeping some of these people who are connected to political groups or who are politicians themselves off of a redistricting commission like this?
Roth: Not really. It’s really more of a freedom of association argument on some level. It’s about this inability of people to participate they are saying essentially it’s discriminatory to not allow people who either have ties to politicians or political affiliates or who are themselves political affiliates. I spoke to John Bursch, who is one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit and he said “it doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are, what party you affiliate with. Just categorically large swaths of Michiganders are going to be removed from the system.” He says that’s not ok and that is not constitutional.
Thorp: What does a group like Voters Not Politicians say about this argument? Does this to them just look like the Republicans nakedly trying to hold on to the power that they had?
Roth: Yeah, when I spoke to Jamie Lyons-Eddy, who is with Voters Not Politicians, they had just gotten this lawsuit it was just filed. But she said they were not surprised. They were expecting that the battle wasn’t over when it comes to implementing this commission. She said she wasn’t surprised by the move. She told me, “We know that some politicians who will lose power to draw maps in secret are trying to make one last ditch effort to allow politicians and lobbyists to maintain power of the maps.” So they really feel this is republicans still trying to hold onto control of their authority and their ability to draw these maps in Michigan.
Thorp: Thank you as always for talking to us.
Roth: Thank you.