II
118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION S. 3750
To reform the congressional redistricting process, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY7, 2024
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself and Ms. BUTLER) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To reform the congressional redistricting process, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Redistricting Reform 4
Act of 2024’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDING OF CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY. 6
Congress finds that it has the authority to establish 7
the terms and conditions States must follow in carrying 8
out congressional redistricting after an apportionment of 9
Members of the House of Representatives because— 10
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(1) the authority granted to Congress under ar-1
ticle I, section 4 of the Constitution of the United 2
States gives Congress the power to enact laws gov-3
erning the time, place, and manner of elections for 4
Members of the House of Representatives; 5
(2) the authority granted to Congress under 6
section 5 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitu-7
tion gives Congress the power to enact laws to en-8
force section 2 of such amendment, which requires 9
Representatives to be apportioned among the several 10
States according to their number; 11
(3) the authority granted to Congress under 12
section 5 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitu-13
tion gives Congress the power to enact laws to en-14
force section 1 of such amendment, including protec-15
tions against excessive partisan gerrymandering that 16
Federal courts have not enforced because they un-17
derstand such enforcement to be committed to Con-18
gress by the Constitution; 19
(4) of the authority granted to Congress to en-20
force article IV, section 4, of the Constitution, and 21
the guarantee of a Republican Form of Government 22
to every State, which Federal courts have not en-23
forced because they understand such enforcement to 24
be committed to Congress by the Constitution; 25
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(5) requiring States to use uniform redistricting 1
criteria is an appropriate and important exercise of 2
such authority; and 3
(6) partisan gerrymandering dilutes citizens’ 4
votes because partisan gerrymandering injures vot-5
ers and political parties by infringing on their First 6
Amendment right to associate freely and their Four-7
teenth Amendment right to equal protection of the 8
laws. 9
SEC. 3. BAN ON MID-DECADE REDISTRICTING. 10
A State that has been redistricted in accordance with 11
this Act may not be redistricted again until after the next 12
apportionment of Representatives under section 22(a) of 13
the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for the fifteenth and 14
subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for an ap-15
portionment of Representatives in Congress’’, approved 16
June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), unless a court requires the 17
State to conduct such subsequent redistricting to comply 18
with the Constitution of the United States, the Voting 19
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), the terms 20
or conditions of this Act, or applicable State law. 21
SEC. 4. CRITERIA FOR REDISTRICTING. 22
(a) R
EQUIRINGPLANSTOMEETCRITERIA.—A 23
State may not use a congressional redistricting plan that 24
is not in compliance with this section. 25
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(b) RANKEDCRITERIA.—Under the redistricting plan 1
of a State, there shall be established single-member con-2
gressional districts using the following criteria as set forth 3
in the following order of priority: 4
(1) Districts shall comply with the United 5
States Constitution, including the requirement that 6
they substantially equalize total population, without 7
regard to age, citizenship status, or immigration sta-8
tus. 9
(2) Districts shall comply with the Voting 10
Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), in-11
cluding by creating any districts where, if based 12
upon the totality of the circumstances, 2 or more po-13
litically cohesive groups protected by such Act are 14
able to elect representatives of choice in coalition 15
with one another, and all other applicable Federal 16
laws. 17
(3)(A) Districts shall be drawn, to the extent 18
that the totality of the circumstances warrant, to en-19
sure the practical ability of a group protected under 20
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 21
seq.) to participate in the political process and to 22
nominate candidates and to elect representatives of 23
choice is not diluted or diminished, regardless of 24
whether or not such protected group constitutes a 25
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majority of a district’s population, voting age popu-1
lation, or citizen voting age population. 2
(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the as-3
sessment of whether a protected group has the prac-4
tical ability to nominate candidates and to elect rep-5
resentatives of choice shall require the consideration 6
of the following factors: 7
(i) Whether the group is politically cohe-8
sive. 9
(ii) Whether there is racially polarized vot-10
ing in the relevant geographic region. 11
(iii) If there is racially polarized voting in 12
the relevant geographic region, whether the pre-13
ferred candidates of the group nevertheless re-14
ceive a sufficient amount of consistent crossover 15
support from other voters such that the group 16
is a functional majority with the ability to both 17
nominate candidates and elect representatives 18
of choice. 19
(4)(A) Districts shall be drawn to represent 20
communities of interest and neighborhoods to the 21
extent practicable after compliance with the require-22
ments of paragraphs (1) through (3). 23
(B) For purposes of this paragraph, the term 24
‘‘community of interest’’— 25
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(i) means an area for which the record be-1
fore the entity responsible for developing and 2
adopting the redistricting plan demonstrates 3
the existence of broadly shared interests and 4
representational needs, including shared inter-5
ests and representational needs rooted in com-6
mon ethnic, racial, economic, Indian, social, cul-7
tural, geographic, or historic identities, or aris-8
ing from similar socioeconomic conditions; and 9
(ii) may, if the record warrants, include 10
political subdivisions such as counties, munici-11
palities, Indian lands, or school districts, but 12
shall not include common relationships with po-13
litical parties or political candidates. 14
(C) For purposes of subparagraph (A), in con-15
sidering the needs of multiple, overlapping commu-16
nities of interest, the entity responsible for devel-17
oping and adopting the redistricting plan shall give 18
greater weight to those communities of interest 19
whose representational needs would most benefit 20
from the community’s inclusion in a single congres-21
sional district. 22
(c) N
OFAVORING ORDISFAVORING OFPOLITICAL 23
P
ARTIES.— 24
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(1) PROHIBITION.—A State may not use a re-1
districting plan to conduct an election if the plan’s 2
congressional districts, when considered cumulatively 3
on a statewide basis, have been drawn with the in-4
tent, or have the effect of, materially favoring or 5
disfavoring any political party. 6
(2) D
ETERMINATION OF EFFECT .—The deter-7
mination of whether a redistricting plan has the ef-8
fect of materially favoring or disfavoring a political 9
party shall be based on an evaluation of the totality 10
of circumstances which, at a minimum, shall involve 11
consideration of each of the following factors: 12
(A) Computer modeling based on relevant 13
statewide general elections for Federal office 14
held over the 8 years preceding the adoption of 15
the redistricting plan setting forth the probable 16
electoral outcomes for the plan under a range 17
of reasonably foreseeable conditions. 18
(B) An analysis of whether the redis-19
tricting plan is statistically likely to result in 20
partisan advantage or disadvantage on a state-21
wide basis, the degree of any such advantage or 22
disadvantage, and whether such advantage or 23
disadvantage is likely to be present under a 24
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range of reasonably foreseeable electoral condi-1
tions. 2
(C) A comparison of the modeled electoral 3
outcomes for the redistricting plan to the mod-4
eled electoral outcomes for alternative plans 5
that demonstrably comply with the require-6
ments of paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of sub-7
section (b) in order to determine whether rea-8
sonable alternatives exist that would result in 9
materially lower levels of partisan advantage or 10
disadvantage on a statewide basis. For purposes 11
of this subparagraph, alternative plans consid-12
ered may include both actual plans proposed 13
during the redistricting process and other plans 14
prepared for purposes of comparison. 15
(D) Any other relevant information, includ-16
ing how broad support for the redistricting plan 17
was among members of the entity responsible 18
for developing and adopting the plan and 19
whether the processes leading to the develop-20
ment and adoption of the plan were transparent 21
and equally open to all members of the entity 22
and to the public. 23
(3) R
EBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION .— 24
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(A) TRIGGER.—In any civil action brought 1
under section 7 in which a party asserts a claim 2
that a State has enacted a redistricting plan 3
which is in violation of this subsection, a party 4
may file a motion not later than 30 days after 5
the enactment of the plan (or, in the case of a 6
plan enacted before the date of enactment of 7
this Act, not later than 30 days after the date 8
of enactment of this Act) requesting that the 9
court determine whether a presumption of such 10
a violation exists. If such a motion is timely 11
filed, the court shall hold a hearing not later 12
than 15 days after the date the motion is filed 13
to assess whether a presumption of such a vio-14
lation exists. 15
(B) A
SSESSMENT.—To conduct the assess-16
ment required under subparagraph (A), the 17
court shall do the following: 18
(i) Determine the number of congres-19
sional districts under the plan that would 20
have been carried by each political party’s 21
candidates for the office of President and 22
the office of Senator in the 2 most recent 23
general elections for the office of President 24
and the 2 most recent general elections for 25
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the office of Senator (other than special 1
general elections) immediately preceding 2
the enactment of the plan, except that if a 3
State conducts a primary election for the 4
office of Senator which is open to can-5
didates of all political parties, the primary 6
election shall be used instead of the gen-7
eral election and the number of districts 8
carried by a party’s candidates for the of-9
fice of Senator shall be determined on the 10
basis of the combined vote share of all can-11
didates in the election who are affiliated 12
with such party. 13
(ii) Determine, for each of the 4 elec-14
tions assessed under clause (i), whether 15
the number of districts that would have 16
been carried by any party’s candidate as 17
determined under clause (i) results in par-18
tisan advantage or disadvantage in excess 19
of the applicable threshold described in 20
subparagraph (C). The degree of partisan 21
advantage or disadvantage shall be deter-22
mined by one or more standard quan-23
titative measures of partisan fairness 24
that— 25
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(I) use a party’s share of the 1
statewide vote to calculate a cor-2
responding benchmark share of seats; 3
and 4
(II) measure the amount by 5
which the share of seats the party’s 6
candidate would have won in the elec-7
tion involved exceeds the benchmark 8
share of seats. 9
(C) A
PPLICABLE THRESHOLD DE -10
SCRIBED.—The applicable threshold described 11
in this subparagraph is, with respect to a State 12
and a number of seats, the greater of— 13
(i) an amount equal to 7 percent of 14
the number of congressional districts in 15
the State; or 16
(ii) one congressional district. 17
(D) D
ESCRIPTION OF QUANTITATIVE 18
MEASURES; PROHIBITING ROUNDING .—In car-19
rying out this subsection— 20
(i) the standard quantitative measures 21
of partisan fairness used by the court may 22
include the simplified efficiency gap but 23
may not include strict proportionality; and 24
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(ii) the court may not round any num-1
ber. 2
(E) P
RESUMPTION OF VIOLATION .—A plan 3
is presumed to violate paragraph (1) if, on the 4
basis of at least one standard quantitative 5
measure of partisan fairness, it exceeds the ap-6
plicable threshold described in subparagraph 7
(C) with respect to 2 or more of the 4 elections 8
assessed under subparagraph (B). 9
(F) S
TAY OF USE OF PLAN .—Notwith-10
standing any other provision of this Act, in any 11
action under this paragraph, the following rules 12
shall apply: 13
(i) Upon filing of a motion under sub-14
paragraph (A), a State’s use of the plan 15
which is the subject of the motion shall be 16
automatically stayed pending resolution of 17
such motion. 18
(ii) If after considering the motion, 19
the court rules that the plan is presumed 20
under subparagraph (E) to violate para-21
graph (1), a State may not use such plan 22
until and unless the court which is car-23
rying out the determination of the effect of 24
the plan under paragraph (2) determines 25
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that, notwithstanding the presumptive vio-1
lation, the plan does not violate paragraph 2
(1). 3
(G) N
O EFFECT ON OTHER ASSESS -4
MENTS.—The absence of a presumption of a 5
violation with respect to a redistricting plan as 6
determined under this paragraph shall not af-7
fect the determination of the effect or intent of 8
the plan under this section. 9
(4) D
ETERMINATION OF INTENT .—A court may 10
rely on all available evidence when determining 11
whether a redistricting plan was drawn with the in-12
tent to materially favor or disfavor a political party, 13
including evidence of the partisan effects of a plan, 14
the degree of support the plan received from mem-15
bers of the entity responsible for developing and 16
adopting the plan, and whether the processes leading 17
to development and adoption of the plan were trans-18
parent and equally open to all members of the entity 19
and to the public. 20
(5) N
O VIOLATION BASED ON CERTAIN CRI -21
TERIA.—No redistricting plan shall be found to be 22
in violation of paragraph (1) because of the proper 23
application of the criteria set forth in paragraph (1), 24
(2), or (3) of subsection (b), unless one or more al-25
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ternative plans could have complied with such para-1
graphs without having the effect of materially favor-2
ing or disfavoring a political party. 3
(d) F
ACTORSPROHIBITEDFROMCONSIDERATION.— 4
In developing the redistricting plan for the State, the 5
State may not, except as necessary to comply with the cri-6
teria described in paragraphs (1) through (3) of sub-7
section (b), to achieve partisan fairness and comply with 8
subsection (b), and to enable the redistricting plan to be 9
measured against the external metrics described in section 10
5(c), take into consideration any of the following factors: 11
(1) The residence of any Member of the House 12
of Representatives or candidate. 13
(2) The political party affiliation or voting his-14
tory of the population of a district. 15
(e) A
DDITIONALCRITERIA.—A State may not rely 16
upon criteria, districting principles, or other policies of the 17
State which are not set forth in this section to justify non- 18
compliance with the requirements of this section. 19
(f) A
PPLICABILITY.— 20
(1) I
N GENERAL.—This section applies to any 21
authority, whether appointed, elected, judicial, or 22
otherwise, responsible for enacting the congressional 23
redistricting plan of a State. 24
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(2) DATE OF ENACTMENT .—This section ap-1
plies to any congressional redistricting plan that 2
would be, or is, in effect after the date of enactment 3
of this Act, regardless of the date of enactment by 4
the State of the congressional redistricting plan. 5
(g) S
EVERABILITY OFCRITERIA.—If any provision of 6
this section, or the application of any such provision to 7
any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, 8
the remainder of this section, and the application of such 9
provision to any other person or circumstance, shall not 10
be affected by the holding. 11
SEC. 5. DEVELOPMENT OF PLAN. 12
(a) P
UBLICNOTICE ANDINPUT.— 13
(1) U
SE OF OPEN AND TRANSPARENT PROC -14
ESS.—The entity responsible for developing and 15
adopting the congressional redistricting plan of a 16
State shall solicit and take into consideration com-17
ments from the public throughout the process of de-18
veloping the plan, and shall carry out its duties in 19
an open and transparent manner which provides for 20
the widest public dissemination reasonably possible 21
of its proposed and final redistricting plans. 22
(2) W
EBSITE.— 23
(A) F
EATURES.—The entity described in 24
paragraph (1) shall maintain a public internet 25
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site which is not affiliated with or maintained 1
by the office of any elected official and which 2
includes the following features: 3
(i) All proposed redistricting plans 4
and the final redistricting plan, including 5
the accompanying written evaluation under 6
subsection (c). 7
(ii) All comments received from the 8
public submitted under paragraph (1). 9
(iii) Access in an easily usable format 10
to the demographic and other data used by 11
the entity to develop and analyze the pro-12
posed redistricting plans, together with any 13
reports analyzing and evaluating such 14
plans and access to software that members 15
of the public may use to draw maps of pro-16
posed districts. 17
(iv) A method by which members of 18
the public may submit comments directly 19
to the entity. 20
(B) S
EARCHABLE FORMAT .—The entity 21
described in paragraph (1) shall ensure that all 22
information posted and maintained on the site 23
under this paragraph, including information 24
and proposed maps submitted by the public, 25
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shall be maintained in an easily searchable for-1
mat. 2
(3) M
ULTIPLE LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR 3
ALL NOTICES.—The entity described in paragraph 4
(1) shall make each notice which is required to be 5
posted and published under this section available in 6
any language in which the State (or any jurisdiction 7
in the State) is required to provide election materials 8
under section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 9
(52 U.S.C. 10503). 10
(b) D
EVELOPMENT OF PLAN.— 11
(1) H
EARINGS.—The entity responsible for de-12
veloping and adopting the congressional redistricting 13
plan shall hold hearings both before and after releas-14
ing proposed plans in order to solicit public input on 15
the content of such plans. These hearings shall— 16
(A) be held in different regions of the 17
State and streamed live on the public internet 18
site maintained under subsection (a)(2); and 19
(B) be sufficient in number, scheduled at 20
times and places, and noticed and conducted in 21
a manner to ensure that all members of the 22
public, including members of racial, ethnic, and 23
language minorities protected under the Voting 24
Rights Act of 1965, have a meaningful oppor-25
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tunity to attend and provide input both before 1
and after the entity releases proposed plans. 2
(2) P
OSTING OF MAPS.—The entity described in 3
paragraph (1) shall make proposed plans, amend-4
ments to proposed plans, and the data needed to 5
analyze such plans for compliance with the criteria 6
of this Act available for public review, including on 7
the public internet site required under subsection 8
(a)(2), for a period of not less than 5 days before 9
any vote or hearing is held on any such plan or any 10
amendment to such a plan. 11
(c) R
ELEASE OFWRITTENEVALUATION OF PLAN 12
A
GAINSTEXTERNALMETRICSREQUIREDPRIOR TO 13
V
OTE.—The entity responsible for developing and adopt-14
ing the congressional redistricting plan for a State may 15
not hold a vote on a proposed redistricting plan, including 16
a vote in a committee, unless at least 48 hours prior to 17
holding the vote the State has released a written evalua-18
tion that measures each such plan against external metrics 19
which cover the criteria set forth in section 4(b), including 20
the impact of the plan on the ability of members of a class 21
of citizens protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 22
U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) to elect candidates of choice, the 23
degree to which the plan preserves or divides communities 24
of interest, and any analysis used by the State to assess 25
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compliance with the requirements of subsections (b) and 1
(c) of section 4. 2
(d) P
UBLICINPUT ANDCOMMENTS.—The entity re-3
sponsible for developing and adopting the congressional 4
redistricting plan for a State shall make all public com-5
ments received about potential plans, including alternative 6
plans, available to the public on the internet site required 7
under subsection (a)(2), at no cost, not later than 24 8
hours prior to holding a vote on final adoption of a plan. 9
SEC. 6. FAILURE BY STATE TO ENACT PLAN. 10
(a) D
EADLINE FORENACTMENT OFPLAN.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-12
graph (2), each State shall enact a final congres-13
sional redistricting plan following transmission of a 14
notice of apportionment to the President by the ear-15
liest of— 16
(A) the deadline set forth in State law, in-17
cluding any extension to the deadline provided 18
in accordance with State law; 19
(B) February 15 of the year in which reg-20
ularly scheduled general elections for Federal 21
office are held in the State; or 22
(C) 90 days before the date of the next 23
regularly scheduled primary election for Federal 24
office held in the State. 25
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(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR PLANS ENACTED PRIOR 1
TO DATE OF ENACTMENT OF ACT .—If a State en-2
acted a final congressional redistricting plan prior to 3
the date of enactment of this Act and the plan is not 4
in compliance with the requirements of this Act, the 5
State shall enact a final redistricting plan which is 6
in compliance with the requirements of this Act not 7
later than 45 days after the date of enactment of 8
this Act. 9
(b) D
EVELOPMENT OF PLAN BYCOURT INCASE OF 10
M
ISSEDDEADLINE.—If a State has not enacted a final 11
congressional redistricting plan by the applicable deadline 12
under subsection (a), or it appears reasonably likely that 13
a State will fail to enact a final congressional redistricting 14
plan by such deadline— 15
(1) any citizen of the State may file an action 16
in the United States district court for the applicable 17
venue asking the district court to assume jurisdic-18
tion; 19
(2) the United States district court for the ap-20
plicable venue, acting through a 3-judge court con-21
vened pursuant to section 2284 of title 28, United 22
States Code, shall have the exclusive authority to de-23
velop and publish the congressional redistricting 24
plan for the State; and 25
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(3) the final congressional redistricting plan de-1
veloped and published by the court under this sec-2
tion shall be deemed to be enacted on the date on 3
which the court publishes the final congressional re-4
districting plan, as described in subsection (e). 5
(c) A
PPLICABLEVENUE.—For purposes of this sec-6
tion, the term ‘‘applicable venue’’ with respect to a State 7
is the District of Columbia or the judicial district in which 8
the capital of the State is located, as selected by the first 9
party to file with the court sufficient evidence that a State 10
has failed to, or is reasonably likely to fail to, enact a final 11
redistricting plan for the State prior to the expiration of 12
the applicable deadline set forth in subsection (a). 13
(d) P
ROCEDURES FORDEVELOPMENT OF PLAN.— 14
(1) C
RITERIA.—In developing a redistricting 15
plan for a State under this section, the court shall 16
adhere to the same terms and conditions that ap-17
plied (or that would have applied, as the case may 18
be) to the development of a plan by the State under 19
section 4. 20
(2) A
CCESS TO INFORMATION AND RECORDS .— 21
The court shall have access to any information, 22
data, software, or other records and material that 23
was used (or that would have been used, as the case 24
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may be) by the State in carrying out its duties 1
under this Act. 2
(3) H
EARING; PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—In de-3
veloping a redistricting plan for a State, the court 4
shall— 5
(A) hold one or more evidentiary hearings 6
at which interested members of the public may 7
appear and be heard and present testimony, in-8
cluding expert testimony, in accordance with 9
the rules of the court; and 10
(B) consider other submissions and com-11
ments by the public, including proposals for re-12
districting plans to cover the entire State or 13
any portion of the State. 14
(4) U
SE OF SPECIAL MASTER.—To assist in the 15
development and publication of a redistricting plan 16
for a State under this section, the court may appoint 17
a special master to make recommendations to the 18
court on possible plans for the State. 19
(e) P
UBLICATION OFPLAN.— 20
(1) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INITIAL PLAN .— 21
Upon completing the development of one or more 22
initial redistricting plans, the court shall make the 23
plans available to the public at no cost, and shall 24
also make available the underlying data used to de-25
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velop the plans and a written evaluation of the plans 1
against external metrics (as described in section 2
5(c)). 3
(2) P
UBLICATION OF FINAL PLAN .—At any 4
time after the expiration of the 14-day period which 5
begins on the date the court makes the plans avail-6
able to the public under paragraph (1), and taking 7
into consideration any submissions and comments by 8
the public which are received during such period, the 9
court shall develop and publish the final redistricting 10
plan for the State. 11
(f) U
SE OFINTERIMPLAN.—In the event that the 12
court is not able to develop and publish a final redis-13
tricting plan for the State with sufficient time for an up-14
coming election to proceed, the court may develop and 15
publish an interim redistricting plan which shall serve as 16
the redistricting plan for the State until the court develops 17
and publishes a final plan in accordance with this section. 18
Nothing in this subsection may be construed to limit or 19
otherwise affect the authority or discretion of the court 20
to develop and publish the final redistricting plan, includ-21
ing the discretion to make any changes the court deems 22
necessary to an interim redistricting plan. 23
(g) A
PPEALS.—Review on appeal of any final or in-24
terim plan adopted by the court in accordance with this 25
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•S 3750 IS
section shall be governed by the appellate process in sec-1
tion 7. 2
(h) S
TAY OFSTATEPROCEEDINGS.—The filing of an 3
action under this section shall act as a stay of any pro-4
ceedings in State court with respect to the State’s congres-5
sional redistricting plan unless otherwise ordered by the 6
court. 7
SEC. 7. CIVIL ENFORCEMENT. 8
(a) C
IVILENFORCEMENT.— 9
(1) A
CTIONS BY ATTORNEY GENERAL .—The At-10
torney General may bring a civil action for such re-11
lief as may be appropriate to carry out this Act. 12
(2) A
VAILABILITY OF PRIVATE RIGHT OF AC -13
TION.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Any person residing or 15
domiciled in a State who is aggrieved by the 16
failure of the State to meet the requirements of 17
the Constitution or Federal law, including this 18
Act, with respect to the State’s congressional 19
redistricting, may bring a civil action in the 20
United States district court for the applicable 21
venue for such relief as may be appropriate to 22
remedy the failure. 23
(B) S
PECIAL RULE FOR CLAIMS RELATING 24
TO PARTISAN ADVANTAGE .—For purposes of 25
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•S 3750 IS
subparagraph (A), a person who is aggrieved by 1
the failure of a State to meet the requirements 2
of section 4(c) may include— 3
(i) any political party or committee in 4
the State; and 5
(ii) any registered voter in the State 6
who resides in a congressional district that 7
the voter alleges was drawn in a manner 8
that contributes to a violation of such sec-9
tion. 10
(C) N
O AWARDING OF DAMAGES TO PRE -11
VAILING PARTY.—Except for an award of attor-12
ney’s fees under subsection (d), a court in a 13
civil action under this section shall not award 14
the prevailing party any monetary damages, 15
compensatory, punitive, or otherwise. 16
(3) D
ELIVERY OF COMPLAINT TO HOUSE AND 17
SENATE.—In any action brought under this section, 18
a copy of the complaint shall be delivered promptly 19
to the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the 20
Secretary of the Senate. 21
(4) E
XCLUSIVE JURISDICTION AND APPLICABLE 22
VENUE.—The district courts of the United States 23
shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear and deter-24
mine claims asserting that a congressional redis-25
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tricting plan violates the requirements of the Con-1
stitution or Federal law, including this Act. The ap-2
plicable venue for such an action shall be the United 3
States District Court for the District of Columbia or 4
for the judicial district in which the capital of the 5
State is located, as selected by the person bringing 6
the action. In a civil action that includes a claim 7
that a redistricting plan is in violation of subsection 8
(b) or (c) of section 4, the United States District 9
Court for the District of Columbia shall have juris-10
diction over any defendant who has been served in 11
any United States judicial district in which the de-12
fendant resides, is found, or has an agent, or in the 13
United States judicial district in which the capital of 14
the State is located. Process may be served in any 15
United States judicial district where a defendant re-16
sides, is found, or has an agent, or in the United 17
States judicial district in which the capital of the 18
State is located. 19
(5) U
SE OF 3-JUDGE COURT.—If an action 20
under this section raises statewide claims under the 21
Constitution or this Act, the action shall be heard by 22
a 3-judge court convened pursuant to section 2284 23
of title 28, United States Code. 24
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(6) REVIEW OF FINAL DECISION .—A final deci-1
sion in an action brought under this section shall be 2
reviewable on appeal by the United States Court of 3
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which 4
shall hear the matter sitting en banc. There shall be 5
no right of appeal in such proceedings to any other 6
court of appeals. Such appeal shall be taken by the 7
filing of a notice of appeal within 10 days of the 8
entry of the final decision. A final decision by the 9
Court of Appeals may be reviewed by the Supreme 10
Court of the United States by writ of certiorari. 11
(b) E
XPEDITEDCONSIDERATION.—In any action 12
brought under this section, it shall be the duty of the dis-13
trict court, the United States Court of Appeals for the 14
District of Columbia Circuit, and the Supreme Court of 15
the United States (if it chooses to hear the action) to ad-16
vance on the docket and to expedite to the greatest pos-17
sible extent the disposition of the action and appeal. 18
(c) R
EMEDIES.— 19
(1) A
DOPTION OF REPLACEMENT PLAN .— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—If the district court in 21
an action under this section finds that the con-22
gressional redistricting plan of a State violates, 23
in whole or in part, the requirements of this 24
Act— 25
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(i) the court shall adopt a replacement 1
congressional redistricting plan for the 2
State in accordance with the process set 3
forth in section 6; or 4
(ii) if circumstances warrant and no 5
delay to an upcoming regularly scheduled 6
election for the House of Representatives 7
in the State would result, the district 8
court, in its discretion, may allow a State 9
to develop and propose a remedial congres-10
sional redistricting plan for review by the 11
court to determine whether the plan is in 12
compliance with this Act, except that— 13
(I) the State may not develop 14
and propose a remedial plan under 15
this clause if the court determines 16
that the congressional redistricting 17
plan of the State was enacted with 18
discriminatory intent in violation of 19
the Constitution or section 4(b); and 20
(II) nothing in this clause may be 21
construed to permit a State to use 22
such a remedial plan which has not 23
been approved by the court. 24
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(B) PROHIBITING USE OF PLANS IN VIOLA -1
TION OF REQUIREMENTS .—No court shall order 2
a State to use a congressional redistricting plan 3
which violates, in whole or in part, the require-4
ments of this Act, or to conduct an election 5
under terms and conditions which violate, in 6
whole or in part, the requirements of this Act. 7
(C) S
PECIAL RULE IN CASE FINAL ADJU -8
DICATION NOT EXPECTED WITHIN 3 MONTHS 9
OF ELECTION.— 10
(i) D
UTY OF COURT.—If final adju-11
dication of an action under this section is 12
not reasonably expected to be completed at 13
least 3 months prior to the next regularly 14
scheduled primary election for the House 15
of Representatives in the State, the district 16
court shall— 17
(I) develop, adopt, and order the 18
use of an interim congressional redis-19
tricting plan in accordance with sec-20
tion 6(f) to address any claims under 21
this Act for which a party seeking re-22
lief has demonstrated a substantial 23
likelihood of success; or 24
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(II) order adjustments to the 1
timing of primary elections for the 2
House of Representatives and other 3
related deadlines, as needed, to allow 4
sufficient opportunity for adjudication 5
of the matter and adoption of a reme-6
dial or replacement plan for use in the 7
next regularly scheduled general elec-8
tions for the House of Representa-9
tives. 10
(ii) P
ROHIBITING FAILURE TO ACT ON 11
GROUNDS OF PENDENCY OF ELECTION .— 12
The court may not refuse to take any ac-13
tion described in clause (i) on the grounds 14
of the pendency of the next election held in 15
the State or the potential for disruption, 16
confusion, or additional burdens with re-17
spect to the administration of the election 18
in the State. 19
(2) N
O STAY PENDING APPEAL .—Notwith-20
standing the appeal of an order finding that a con-21
gressional redistricting plan of a State violates, in 22
whole or in part, the requirements of this Act, no 23
stay shall issue which shall bar the development or 24
adoption of a replacement or remedial plan under 25
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•S 3750 IS
this subsection, as may be directed by the district 1
court, pending such appeal. If such a replacement or 2
remedial plan has been adopted, no appellate court 3
may stay or otherwise enjoin the use of such plan 4
during the pendency of an appeal, except upon an 5
order holding, based on the record, that adoption of 6
such plan was an abuse of discretion. 7
(3) S
PECIAL AUTHORITY OF COURT OF AP -8
PEALS.— 9
(A) O
RDERING OF NEW REMEDIAL 10
PLAN.—If, upon consideration of an appeal 11
under this Act, the Court of Appeals determines 12
that a plan does not comply with the require-13
ments of this Act, it shall direct that the Dis-14
trict Court promptly develop a new remedial 15
plan with assistance of a special master for con-16
sideration by the Court of Appeals. 17
(B) F
AILURE OF DISTRICT COURT TO 18
TAKE TIMELY ACTION.—If, at any point during 19
the pendency of an action under this section, 20
the District Court fails to take action necessary 21
to permit resolution of the case prior to the 22
next regularly scheduled election for the House 23
of Representatives in the State or fails to grant 24
the relief described in paragraph (1)(C), any 25
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party may seek a writ of mandamus from the 1
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 2
Circuit. The Court of Appeals shall have juris-3
diction over the motion for a writ of mandamus 4
and shall establish an expedited briefing and 5
hearing schedule for resolution of the motion. If 6
the Court of Appeals determines that a writ 7
should be granted, the Court of Appeals shall 8
take any action necessary, including developing 9
a congressional redistricting plan with assist-10
ance of a special master to ensure that a reme-11
dial plan is adopted in time for use in the next 12
regularly scheduled election for the House of 13
Representatives in the State. 14
(4) E
FFECT OF ENACTMENT OF REPLACEMENT 15
PLAN.—A State’s enactment of a redistricting plan 16
which replaces a plan which is the subject of an ac-17
tion under this section shall not be construed to 18
limit or otherwise affect the authority of the court 19
to adjudicate or grant relief with respect to any 20
claims or issues not addressed by the replacement 21
plan, including claims that the plan which is the 22
subject of the action was enacted, in whole or in 23
part, with discriminatory intent, or claims to con-24
sider whether relief should be granted under section 25
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3(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 1
10302(c)) based on the plan which is the subject of 2
the action. 3
(d) A
TTORNEY’SFEES.—In a civil action under this 4
section, the court may allow the prevailing party (other 5
than the United States) reasonable attorney fees, includ-6
ing litigation expenses, and costs. 7
(e) R
ELATION TOOTHERLAWS.— 8
(1) R
IGHTS AND REMEDIES ADDITIONAL TO 9
OTHER RIGHTS AND REMEDIES .—The rights and 10
remedies established by this section are in addition 11
to all other rights and remedies provided by law, and 12
neither the rights and remedies established by this 13
section nor any other provision of this Act shall su-14
persede, restrict, or limit the application of the Vot-15
ing Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.). 16
(2) V
OTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 .—Nothing in 17
this Act authorizes or requires conduct that is pro-18
hibited by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 19
10301 et seq.). 20
(f) L
EGISLATIVEPRIVILEGE.—No person, legisla-21
ture, or State may claim legislative privilege under either 22
State or Federal law in a civil action brought under this 23
section or in any other legal challenge, under either State 24
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or Federal law, to a redistricting plan enacted under this 1
Act. 2
(g) R
EMOVAL.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—At any time, a civil action 4
brought in a State court which asserts a claim for 5
which the district courts of the United States have 6
exclusive jurisdiction under this Act may be removed 7
by any party in the case, including an intervenor, by 8
filing, in the district court for an applicable venue 9
under this section, a notice of removal signed pursu-10
ant to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Proce-11
dure containing a short and plain statement of the 12
grounds for removal. Consent of parties shall not be 13
required for removal. 14
(2) C
LAIMS NOT WITHIN THE ORIGINAL OR 15
SUPPLEMENTAL JURISDICTION .—If a civil action re-16
moved in accordance with paragraph (1) contains 17
claims not within the original or supplemental juris-18
diction of the district court, the district court shall 19
sever all such claims and remand them to the State 20
court from which the action was removed. 21
SEC. 8. NO EFFECT ON ELECTIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL 22
OFFICE. 23
Nothing in this Act may be construed to affect the 24
manner in which a State carries out elections for State 25
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or local office, including the process by which a State es-1
tablishes the districts used in such elections. 2
SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. 3
This Act shall apply on the date of enactment of this 4
Act. 5
Æ
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