In response to a motion to dismiss filed by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission in a challenge of the legislative maps, attorney Mike Liburdi claims that the IRC is attempting stop the suit in its infancy to maintain a shroud of secrecy.
In the plaintiff’s response, Liburdi wrote, “What the IRC tries desperately to avoid is civil discovery that is bound to reveal what it has been struggling to hide for the entire redistricting process.” The plaintiffs allege that the redistricting process was rigged in favor of the Democrats.
The suits hold that while both the U.S. and Arizona Constitution require that legislative districts be equal in population, or as nearly equal as practicable, the legislative districts created by the IRC are unjustifiably unequal.
Plaintiffs claim that more than half the districts are “over-populated” and virtually all of the rest are “under-populated.” Although limited deviations can be tolerated if based on legitimate reasons, the extent of these deviations alone should render the district boundaries illegal.
Plaintiffs challenged the IRC’s defense that “population deviations of up to 10 percent are permitted to advance “a rational state policy” fails on two counts: First, there is no “rational state policy” that the deviations serve, and, second, a deviation of less than 10 percent merely gives the “presumption of constitutionality,” but is not a “safe harbor” for constitutional challenges.”
The IRC claimed that the deviations were part of compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.
Plaintiffs countered that the facts showed “no correlation exists” between meeting Voting Rights Act standards and the underpopulations, and the IRC created five out of nine majority-minority districts which had decreases in Hispanic Voting Age Populations from the draft map to the final map.
Plaintiffs claimed that there was only one reason the IRC decreased both the populations and the number of Hispanics in those districts: “The IRC wanted to peel off Hispanic voters from the VRA districts and shove them into adjacent White districts to increase Democrat voting strength therein.”
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