Experience

VRA/REDISTRICTING Practice Area Rep Matters – Other Notable Matters

Other Notable Matters

Other notable redistricting and voting rights representations include:

  • Yes on Proposition 11 (2008): Represented the campaign regarding preclearance of Proposition 11, the 2008 ballot measure that established an independent commission for redistricting of state legislative offices in California.
  • Yes on Proposition 20 (2010): Represented the campaign regarding preclearance of Proposition 20, the 2010 ballot measure that expanded the duties of Proposition 11’s independent commission for redistricting to congressional offices in California.
  • Vandermost v. Bowen, 53 Cal. 4th 421 (2012): the firm represented Charles T. Munger, Jr., the leading proponent of Propositions 11 and 20, as amicus curiae, addressing the possible remedies that the Court could employ in the event that it concluded the Senate Map drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission could not be used in 2012 due to a pending referendum petition against the map.
  • Proposition 14, the Top Two Candidate Open Primary Act: Following the passage of the State’s new open primary law in 2010, the firm successfully obtained preclearance for the measure under Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act. We also successfully defended the measure against a suit in federal court under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, in Brown v. Bowen, Case No. 2:12-cv-05547-PA-SPx (C.D. Cal. 2012).
  • The State of Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2001): Represented consultant to the Commission concerning all aspects of the 2001 first ever citizen-commission redistricting of the state’s Congressional and legislative districts including United States Attorney General preclearance under Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act.
  • The Senate of the State of Florida (2001): Represented the Florida State Senate concerning all aspects of the state’s 2001 Congressional and state Senatorial redistricting including United States Attorney General preclearance under the federal Voting Rights Act; special litigation counsel in state and federal courts defending against constitutional and Voting Rights Act challenges to the plans.
  • California Administrative Office of the Courts (1998): Represented the AOC in obtaining United States Attorney General preclearance for the unification of California’s trial courts.
  • Wilson v. Eu , 1 Cal. 4th 707 (1991): the firm represented the California State Board of Equalization in connection with a court-drawn redistricting plan following the 1990 Census.
  • Badham v. Eu , 694 F. Supp. 664 (N.D. Cal. 1988), aff’d, 488 U.S. 1024 (1989): the firm litigated one of the first partisan gerrymandering claims, in a case that extended the holding of the Supreme Court’s decision in Davis v. Bandemer—that such claims are justiciable under the equal protection clause—to congressional redistricting.