By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
December 13, 2024
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit over the city of Anderson Common Council’s failure to redraw its council district map have filed a motion asking the federal court to start setting deadlines.
The motion to set deadline, filed with the Southern Indiana District Court on Dec. 11, requested the Anderson Common Council be given until Jan. 17, 2025, to submit its remedial redistricting map. The plaintiffs noted they filed their lawsuit in June 2023 and their motion for partial summary judgment was granted by the court in September 2024.
However, more than two months after being ordered to “correct this ongoing violation,” the common council has yet to comply, the plaintiffs said in their motion.
The council did not redistrict after the 2020 U.S. Census population data was released as required by federal law. During the 2024 session of the Indiana General Assembly, lawmakers extended the deadline to June 30, 2025, for more than 100 local governmental units, including the Anderson council, to draw new district maps.
The plaintiffs – Common Cause Indiana, Anderson-Madison County NAACP Branch 3058, the League of Women Voters of Indiana and two residents of the city of Anderson – assert the Anderson council’s map violates state law and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because the six districts are significantly malapportioned with a total population deviation of 46%. In other redistricting lawsuits, the federal courts have typically held that the population deviation should not exceed 10%.
According to the plaintiffs’ motion, the opposing parties did meet and tried to settle the case. The plaintiffs presented the council’s attorney with a revised map that had a total population deviation of 9.7% and included a majority-minority district.
At a special meeting on Dec. 3, the council rejected the plaintiffs’ revised map and voted 7-2 to hire an outside consultant to draw another district map. Council President Lance Stephenson acknowledged the common council would have to interview and hire a consultant in January in order to have enough time to meet the June redistricting deadline.
Stephenson said the common council wanted to interview three consultants then hire one to redraw the map. However, he noted, “this is a terrible time” of year to make a new hire.
Meanwhile, the plaintiffs do not seem willing to wait.
“Given that the Council has already had more than two months to prepare and submit a remedial plan to the Court and has failed to do so, Plaintiffs request that the Court set a deadline by which the parties may submit their respective remedial plans to the Court for its consideration,” the plaintiffs stated in their motion.
The case is Common Cause Indiana et al. v. City of Anderson Common Council, et al., 1:23-cv-1022.
This article was edited by Colleen Steffen, executive editor of The Statehouse File at Franklin College, edited this article.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
