Contact: RJ Elliott | rj@srcc.org

March 25, 2024 - On Friday, March 22nd, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Intervenors’ motion to stay the district court’s March 15th remedial order in the Soto Palmer redistricting lawsuit. Barring an intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, it looks like Judge Robert Lasnik’s adoption of Democrat plaintiff’s redistricting maps will be used in the 2024 elections. Judge Lasnik sits on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Sen. John Braun, Republican Leader, had the following reaction.

“Using Judge Lasnik’s maps for elections is nothing but a judicial gerrymander. 

“Let’s be absolutely clear what this is all about. These maps give Democrats a +14.4% district in central Washington. This has NOTHING TO DO with increasing Hispanic power. This increases DEMOCRAT power.

“These gerrymandered maps violate numerous state redistricting laws.  They give partisan advantage to Democrats, giving them advantages in two districts (Legislative District [LD] 14 and LD 17) and making them much more competitive in another (LD 12).

“These gerrymandered maps push three Republican Senators out of their districts and I believe, two Republican Representatives. Of course, no Democrat legislators were affected.

“These gerrymandered maps displace 500,000 people from thirteen districts around the state, when intervenors showed it could be done with only 80,000 people and 3 districts.

“Most egregiously, NONE of this needed to happen. Democrats alleged a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act in the Redistricting Commission maps. They alleged that the Hispanic population was “cracked” in order to dilute their political power.  This despite the fact that those Commission maps constructed a 73% Hispanic majority minority district with more than 50% of it being Hispanic Citizens of Voting Age Population (HCVAP).

“What was the Democrat solution? Crack the Hispanic population further. These maps actually REDUCE the Hispanic population.  AND they disenfranchise the first Latina Senator in eastern Washington by redistricting her out of her district.

“This is a sham lawsuit brought for raw political power. The Democrats knew they could not get this through the bipartisan Redistricting Commission process so they brought a couple of lawsuits hoping they could find a sympathetic judge to buy in. They found one in Judge Lasnik.

“We can only hope that at some point, the United States Supreme Court will right the wrong that has been done in this process.”

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