Healey v. Missouri
Plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) initiated a legal challenge in the Circuit Court of Jackson County to bar the State of Missouri from using its newly enacted, mid-decade congressional gerrymander in upcoming congressional elections. The complaint alleged that the new map violates Missourians’ right to vote in compact and equally populated congressional districts guaranteed by the Missouri Constitution, by subjugating the state’s neutral redistricting criteria to partisan considerations.
Specifically, the Missouri Constitution requires that each district in a lawful congressional map be drawn as “compact … as may be.” The mid-decade gerrymander reduced the compactness of CDs 4, 5, and 6 in violation of that constitutional mandate. The Missouri Supreme Court has recognized that the “mandatory” requirement of compactness includes a consideration of historical district boundaries. This new map drastically reshapes Kansas City-based CD 5 by splitting the district into three districts, some of which stretch hundreds of miles away from the city.
The NRF directed litigation and provided financial support on behalf of plaintiffs. Unfortunately, the trial court denied plaintiffs’ request to declare the state’s redistricting plan unconstitutional on compactness grounds, and the state supreme court affirmed.
Case Documents
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