Redistricting, Voting Rights and Elections
After the release of a Decennial Census, Congressional seats are reapportioned among the states according to population. States then undertake the redistricting process of both Congressional and state legislative districts to make adjustment for population changes and thereby comply with the requirement of one person, one vote. Local governments must also redistrict to ensure equal population among their districts.
Some states, including Georgia, must submit all election law changes, such as redistricting, for preclearance under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During both the 1990 and 2000 redistricting process, lawyers in the firm have represented various parties in the redistricting process at the General Assembly, before the Department of Justice and in subsequent Section 5 and Section 2 litigation in the federal courts. In the 2000 redistricting cycle, the firm represented four minority citizens in the State of Georgia's Section 5 preclearance case, State of Georgia v. John Ashcroft, et al., which was appealed to the United States Supreme Court and remanded to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for further proceedings. We also represented the plaintiff in the Fulton County Board of Election redistricting case, Markham v. Fulton County Board of Elections and Registration et al. In the 1990s, lawyers from the firm served as plaintiffs' co-counsel in Jones v. Miller, the impasse case arising from Georgia's 1991 redistricting, and as counsel to amicus curiae, Congressmen John Lewis and Newt Gingrich, in Johnson v. Miller, another case arising from Georgia's 1990s redistricting.
The firm represented a group of citizens in Larios v. Cox, a redistricting case in the Northern District of Georgia in which a three judge court ruled unanimously in favor of the firm's clients. By a vote of 8-1, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Cox v. Larios on June 30, 2004.
The firm also provides advice to and represents clients in matters pertaining to elections, including candidate qualification issues, election contests and campaign finance and disclosure. We also defend candidates and public officials who are the subject of complaints before the State Ethics Commission.