Illinois Democratic lawmakers and the Illinois State Board of Elections have filed motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund over the state’s redistricting plan.
In separate filings on Friday, Illinois House Speaker Emmanuel Chris Welch and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon along with the Illinois State Board of Elections asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to dismiss the suit on the grounds that MALDEF lacks standing to file the suit because they have made no district specific allegations of harm, there is no legal precedent that has held that American Community Survey Data in redistricting is improper or unconstitutional, and that the claims are not ripe for a suit because 2020 census data will not be released until August.
In the separate Board of Elections dismissal filing, the board claims that under the 11th Amendment, they are not an individual and are not subject to suit and that MALDEF has not said a viable equal protection claim against the board’s members.
Both motions were filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in defense of the parties.
MALDEF filed suit on June 4th claiming that the American Community Survey data malapportioned the redistricting plan by not taking into account all residents of the state, represents only a small sample size of addresses, and seriously under counts sparsely populated areas.
This is a developing story.