Census, Redistricting Rulings Could Shape Future U.S. Elections
06/25/2019
Contact: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu or Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
A UMass Lowell legal expert is available to discuss the significance of U.S. Supreme Court rulings expected this week on the U.S. census and voter map redistricting.
At the heart of the cases are questions about election rules, according to Morgan Marietta, an authority on the U.S Supreme Court, constitutional law and political psychology.
“Americans have a deep interest in elections being fair and accurate, but who has a right to object when the rules seem unfair is not at all clear,” Marietta said.
The issue before the court in Department of Commerce v. New York centers on whether the U.S. Census Bureau may add a question to the 2020 census that asks respondents whether they are U.S. citizens. The census, which determines the country’s population, is mandated by the U.S. Constitution every decade to determine representation in Congress and presidential elections. Census results are also used by the states to draw up legislative districts. Proponents of adding the citizenship question argue it’s necessary to properly enforce voting rights; detractors say the question will lower survey response rates, which would lead to an inaccurate population count and, as a result, underrepresentation of the public by elected officials, according to Marietta.
In Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek, the court is considering whether the political party in control of a state legislature can alter the district maps to make it harder for their party to be removed from office. The allegations of “gerrymandering” districts are lodged against both Republicans in North Carolina (Rucho) and Democrats in Maryland (Lamone).
“This sounds like a clear violation of the concept of representative democracy, but it runs into an immediate snag: Has a right been violated and whose right? Who can sue to correct it?,” Marietta said.
Marietta is co-author of the new book “One Nation, Two Realities: Dueling Facts in American Democracy,” whose piece about divergent perceptions about the Mueller Report recently appeared in media outlets around the country. He is a UMass Lowell associate professor of political science and a fellow in the university’s Center for Public Opinion. To arrange an interview with him, contact Nancy Cicco at Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu, 978-934-4944 or Christine Gillette at Christine_Gillette@uml.edu, 978-934-2209.
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