Illinois Valley Times

A three judge federal panel has designated the week of Dec. 6 as the time it will hear arguments in a trio of consolidated cases challenging the legality of legislative maps drawn by Democrats and signed into law earlier this year by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, according to Capitol News Illinois.

During a recent status conference held by teleconference, U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr., who presides over the panel, also said that the hearing more than likely will be held in person at the Dirksen Federal Building in downtown Chicago.  

Democrats banded together to pass the maps back in August following the delayed release of official 2020 Census Bureau data. Roughly a month later, the governor signed the legislation into law, with the maps establishing the boundaries for all 118 districts in the Illinois House and 59 districts in the state Senate.

Soon thereafter, three groups filed suit in federal court charging that the redistricting plan violates both the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. In each case, the plaintiffs charge the new maps break up concentrated areas of minority voters who tend to vote as a bloc, thus robbing them of their right to elect candidates of their choice.

While two of the suits were filed on behalf of minorities charging the maps dilute their voting power, the other was filed by republican leaders Sen. Dan McConchie and Rep. Jim Durkin and their respective GOP caucuses.

All three lawsuits name the Illinois State Board of Elections, Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch as defendants.

Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) is one several GOP lawmakers now arguing the recently released census numbers validate what they’ve been saying all along about the way Democrats drew the new maps.

“The official 2020 decennial counts released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week confirm that the Democrats’ redistricting plan violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law, as well as comparable provisions of the Illinois Constitution,” Spain posted on Facebook at the time.

Spain argues that Democrats have had chances to do things differently, but essentially looked the other way in the name of maintaining power.

“The majority party has chosen to follow the same old playbook by blocking any effort for independent redistricting,” he wrote in a June 22 Facebook post.