DETROIT — Michigan Supreme Court justices will decide whether Michigan's new redistricting maps give Black voters a fair shot at electing preferred candidates and raised the possibility Wednesday of selecting their own expert to inform their decision.
The Detroit legislative caucus' legal challenge to the state's new political maps — argued before the high court Wednesday — maintained that Black voters in Metro Detroit won't get a preferred candidate through primary elections if their voice is diluted by White Democratic voters in the suburbs.
The redistricting commission's mapmakers have maintained that's not a foregone conclusion, arguing that White voters could support minority-preferred candidates.
The justices' decision will hinge on whether they conclude the state can still elect minority-preferred candidates of color without decades-old majority-minority districts in Detroit and maintain compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.
The seven-member high court did not give a timeline for deciding the case, but the justices are aware an April candidate filing deadline makes a speedy decision in the case critical.
Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission argued Wednesday there is enough voting data showing that it is possible to elect a preferred minority candidate without a majority-minority district, in part because White voters in Michigan have shown a willingness to vote for candidates of color.
"Just because a district is not drawn at majority-minority does not mean it will not elect a candidate of choice for the minority community," said Katherine McKnight, a lawyer for the redistricting commission.
"...The danger in following plaintiff's path here is that you consolidate minority voting power in fewer districts.”
The Detroit Caucus argued there were no guarantees in the commission's data ensuring minority-preferred candidates could get through a primary. The caucus presented conflicting data supporting their doubts, but acknowledged more expertise could back up their claims if the caucus had more time and resources, lawyer Nabih Ayad said.
'It's unfair, and it's unjust'
Ayad pointed to the announced retirement of U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, as potential proof of doubts among Black candidates regarding their chances under the new maps. Lawrence is the only Black lawmaker representing Michigan in Congress.
"Why should this community be the sacrificial lamb in all of this? It’s unfair, and it’s unjust," Ayad said.
Wednesday's arguments stemmed from a Detroit Caucus challenge of redistricting maps approved by the commission in late December that break up long-held Black majority districts in Detroit to merge them with White Democratic-leaning suburbs.
The commission drew the districts as such to give the Detroit area more Democratic-leaning districts — a reflection of the political makeup in parts of the region. The effort sought to reverse alleged "packing" of Black voters that occurred under Republican-led map drawing.
The commission's work resulted in no majority-Black districts in the congressional map, zero in the state Senate map and seven in the state House map. But the new maps did make gains in providing more partisan fairness toward Democrats, who had been subject to maps drawn by the Republican majority in the Legislature for at least two decades.
Some Detroit leaders have argued that the commission went too far and in effect diluted the vote of Black Detroiters, making it difficult if not impossible to get a candidate of color through Democratic primaries. Ayad said Wednesday it would take a "miracle" to get an African American candidate through the primary in some of the districts.
The Detroit Caucus contended the maps violated protections for "communities of interest" in the Michigan Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act, both of which the commission is supposed to consider under the 2018 constitutional amendment that created the redistricting commission. The caucus asked the Michigan Supreme Court to halt putting the new maps into effect and ordering them to be redrawn.
More analysis needed?
The justices questioned whether the Detroit Caucus had had enough time and resources to develop in-depth analysis and alternative maps to counter the expert opinions of the redistricting commission, even raising the possibility of appointing their own expert to weigh the merits of the case.
They noted the commission sailed past its constitutional deadline because of U.S. Census data delays and left little time for a challenge to be mounted ahead of April candidate filing deadlines to run in the new districts.
Ayad argued their analysis was sufficient to show the maps would harm Black voters but didn't squash the possibility for more time and resources.
The commission's McKnight argued the record before justices was sufficient for them to make a decision, noting how quickly the caucus had filed its suit and that it had offered some expert testimony to support its case.
She maintained the redistricting commission's own expert testimony should be considered as proof that Black Detroiters could elect preferred candidates without having a majority of voters within a given district. Voting data indicates there's sufficient White crossover voting to accomplish as much, McKnight argued.
The goal of the Voting Rights Act, which pushes map drawers to consider race, is to eventually get to a point where majority-minority districts aren't required to elect a candidate of color because of White support, she said.
"Michigan is seeing some of that progress already," she said.
Justices cast doubt
But some justices cast doubt on that conclusion, with Justice David Viviano asking what would happen if elections didn't result in candidates of color.
"Would the plaintiffs be entitled to relief at some point in the future?" said Viviano, a Republican-nominated justice who wrote the court's majority opinion that allowed the redistricting commission proposal to go on the November 2018 ballot. "...What if your predictions don't turn out to be true?"
Justice Richard Bernstein pointed out that 14% of the state's population is Black, with the majority concentrated in Detroit. But only seven of the 110 House districts drawn give Blacks a majority and none of the congressional or state Senate seats. The Democratic-nominated justice added that the Supreme Court will decide the maps affecting Michigan's African American communities for the next 10 years, but the court contains no Black justices.
Bernstein, who is blind, said the disability community has a saying: "Nothing about us without us."
"When you're talking about African American representation, you're talking about the idea that you kind of have to live it to understand it," Bernstein said.
