By Mary Jo Pitzl | The Arizona Republic
The fate of Arizona’s legislative map may turn on the question of whether it’s legal to diminish the power of one-man, one-vote in the name of protecting minority voting rights.
The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission maintains it was justified in approving districts of unequal population because it prevented the state from backsliding on the creation of majority-minority districts, a key component of the federal Voting Rights Act.
But the attorneys for a group of Republican voters challenging the boundaries said the commission’s map was deliberately created to boost Democrats’ gains at the Legislature, under the cover of protecting minority voting rights. The Voting Rights Act requires states with past violations of minority voting rights to ensure new election procedures do not hamper minority voting.
On Friday, both sides in the weeklong trial summed up their arguments before a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court. The outcome will determine whether the map that was used in last fall’s legislative races will remain in place for the next decade or whether the five-member independent commission will be sent back to draw a new map.
(Editor’s note: RLG represents Commissioner Scott Freeman in the case.)
