The city of Miami is appealing a judge’s ruling last month that found the city had racially gerrymandered its voting districts, a move that could further extend a contentious and costly legal battle. On Friday, the city informed the court that it will appeal two key rulings in a case brought against Miami in 2022 by voting rights activists represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. That includes a judge’s order last month that invalidated the boundaries of the city’s five districts, which U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore...

Miami commissioners are not yet ready to accept a new voting map as part of a settlement in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit, expressing concerns that the proposed map wouldn’t guarantee diversity of elected officials, adding further delay to contentious legal battle. In a 4-0 vote, the Miami City Commission on Thursday deferred a vote on the settlement to the May 23 meeting, with some members saying it was too important of a decision to make without the presence of Commissioner Damian Pardo, who is out of the country for a...

Politics and race are both factors in a pending court challenge of Louisiana's new congressional maps. How much weight each carries is a major question before three federal judges whose ruling could affect the balance of power in the next Congress. At issue is a congressional map that was approved this year with the backing of the state's new governor, Jeff Landry — to the consternation of at least some of his fellow Republicans. The map creates a new mostly Black congressional district in Louisiana, at the expense of a...

Nearly 19 million people watched on as Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks bested the Iowa Hawkeyes in the women’s NCAA championship game on Sunday afternoon. Not a stranger to making sports history, Staley became the first Black coach to have an undefeated season in the NCAA Division 1 and the only Black coach to win three national titles. As I was doing squats, rows, leg lifts with the game on in the background, I mentally transported back to my childhood when promotion for the WNBA was heavy. I...

A federal judge has thrown out the city of Miami’s voting map after ruling that commissioners in 2022 approved unconstitutional, racially gerrymandered district boundaries that sorted city residents by race and ethnicity. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore issued a sharp ruling that invalidated the boundaries of each of the city’s five districts – rejecting a mindset that has defined how the city chose elected representatives for more than two decades. The judge barred the city from holding any elections under the unconstitutional districts. The next city...

Mike Sheridan, the last Democrat to serve as the Wisconsin state Assembly speaker, predicts a decline in Republican influence following the introduction of new electoral maps and said he won’t be ruling out another future run for office. Sheridan spoke with The Daily Cardinal to discuss a surge in political polarization, new legislative maps and voter turnout ahead of the 2024 election. Sheridan represented the 44th Assembly District from 2005-11 and served as speaker from 2009 until the end of his term. Sheridan was Jeff Fitzgerald and later current Speaker...

On Feb. 19, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers signed new state legislative maps into law, ending a decade-long political and judicial dogfight that culminated in the state supreme court ruling that Wisconsin’s maps violated the state constitution. Those maps were egregious examples of gerrymandering — the practice of manipulating the borders of congressional and state districts to benefit one party at the expense of the other. The practice is as old as the republic. Politicians in states such as Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina adopted it as early as the...