(CN) — Republican leaders in the Illinois Legislature filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday claiming a state redistricting plan approved by Democrats is unconstitutional because it is based on census estimates instead of the official figures that will not be released until August.
The complaint filed in Chicago federal court by state Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, R-Lake County, and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Cook County, seeks an order from a three-judge panel declaring the redistricting plan unconstitutional under the equal protection clause.
Besides the Senate and House Democratic leaders, the complaint names as defendants the Illinois State Board of Elections, which is charged with implementing any redistricting plan and conducting elections based on the plan.
Senator Omar Aquino, a Chicago Democrat and chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, and Senator Elgie Sims, another Democratic representing Chicago who serves as vice chair of the committee, said in a statement that "it is disappointing but not surprising Republicans would seek to strike down these new maps, which reflect the great racial and geographic diversity of our state."
“Throughout this process, they have done nothing but delay and obstruct efforts to ensure our communities are fairly represented, as seen by their refusal to even draft their own proposals," the two Democrats said. "We stand by our work to ensure everyone has a voice in state government.”
Under the Illinois Constitution, one state senator is elected from each of the 59 Senate districts, according to the Republicans' complaint. Each Senate district is divided into two House of Representative districts, and one state representative is elected from each of the 118 House districts.
Illinois is required by the state constitution to draw new legislative district boundaries every 10 years based on population figures produced by the decennial U.S. census. The U.S. Census Bureau, which ordinarily releases the official census every decade in April, has delayed release of the 2020 census until mid-August, which is after the June 30 deadline for the Illinois Legislature to enact a plan. The delay was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and court battles over data collection.
If the General Assembly fails to enact a valid redistricting plan by June 30, a bipartisan redistricting commission has sole authority to enact a valid legislative redistricting plan based on the 2020 decennial census.
In order to avoid the process being turned over to a redistricting commission, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly enacted a redistricting plan May 28, and it was signed into law by Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker.
The plan was based on population estimates from the American Community Survey, or ACS, produced by the Census Bureau. The Republicans’ suit argues the ACS is not a valid substitute for the official federal census numbers.
“Unlike the decennial census, which represents a complete count of the population, the ACS estimates represent a small sampling of addresses and are therefore subject to sampling errors and imprecision,” the complaint states.
The state GOP leaders say the Census Bureau itself "expressly warns that ACS estimates are not a viable alternative to the official decennial census counts.”
“While the Census Bureau conducts the ACS, the estimates from that survey are not intended to be, and are not, a proper substitute for the official census counts. Nor is it proper to use ACS estimates for redistricting,” the lawsuit states.
Estimates by the ACS undercount minority populations, according to the complaint. As a result, the Republicans argue, the plan approved by the legislature “ensures that historically undercounted minority communities will continue to be underrepresented and lose their right to an equal vote in the legislature by foregoing the official census counts in favor of the ACS estimates."
"Thus, it is no surprise that more than 50 good government groups and community advocates have publicly opposed the General Assembly’s reliance on ACS estimates for the redistricting plan," the complaint states.
The suit was filed by Phillip A. Luetkehans of Luetkehans, Brady, Garner & Armstrong in Itasca, Illinois.
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