New Michigan House map remedies racial concerns that led to redraw, special master says

Lansing — A new Michigan House map redrawn under court order is "narrowly tailored" to address the constitutional flaws identified and ordered corrected by the federal court, a special master told the three-judge panel Friday.

The changes implemented to 15 House districts in the redraw by Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission are "considerable" in scope, but appear to comply with the federal court's order to redraw the map without undue consideration given to race, said Special Master Bernard Grofman, a University of California, Irvine, professor appointed by the court to review the redrawn legislative district boundaries.

"There are always multiple ways in which maps can be drawn," Grofman said. "I did not identify major flaws with the (Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission) map that would suggest it failed to address the race-related constitution concerns of the court.

"From my social science perspective, I view the MI-IRC as having been able to address and remedy the race-related constitutional defects in its previous map, but the decision as to whether its remedy is an adequate one is, of course, a legal decision for this court."

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission spent the first month of 2024 redrawing Metro Detroit House seats after a three-judge federal panel in December ruled seven Detroit House districts were drawn primarily based on race in violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

Detroiters had challenged the maps on the argument that the commission had diluted the Black vote by stretching districts from majority-Black Detroit into the White suburbs of Macomb and Oakland counties.

The judges ordered seven House districts redrawn without race being a driving factor. The commission ended up redrawing 15 districts, after having to make changes to adjoining districts to accommodate changes in the original seven.

The Detroiters who sued for the change argued earlier this month that the map didn't do enough to ensure Black majority districts, was influenced by outside parties and that it was drawn to intentionally protect incumbents because no incumbent lawmakers were drawn into the same district.

The commission argued in a court filing Friday that the new map relied largely on a collaborative map drawing process and public comment, and was the preferred rendering among the 10 maps advanced for public comment. Even one of the Detroit plaintiffs suing the redistricting commission had shown support for the new map in online public comment, the commission's filing said.

Judges have until March 29 to accept either the map submitted by the commission or one drawn by a separate special master as a possible alternative. The final map, approved by the commission on March 29, will be used for this year's House primary and general elections.

The new proposed map, Grofman said in his report, has a few key differences from the one ruled unconstitutional that bring it into compliance with the court order.

The new map greatly reduces the number of "extrusions" or extensions across 8 Mile that paired majority Black areas of Detroit with mostly White suburbs in Macomb and Oakland County, Grofman said. In all, the number of House districts crossing into Oakland and Macomb counties went from nine to four.

As a result, the number of majority Black voting age population districts increased from five to seven, with all but one coming in between 67% and 91% Black voting age population, Grofman said.

Three other districts where Black voting age population is below 50%, districts 1, 10 and 12, are still likely to elect Black candidates, Grofman said, noting the current incumbents — state Rep. Tyrone Carter, House Speaker Joe Tate and Rep. Kimberly Edwards — all are Black. Carter and Tate won by large majorities in 2022 and Edwards was able to unseat an incumbent White Democratic lawmaker.

"My own conceptual analysis of possible map configurations indicate that it is possible to draw more than seven Black majority citizen voting age districts in the same area," Grofman said in a footnote. "But in the (commission's) remedial map some possible majority Black citizens voting age districts have been drawn as realistic opportunity to elect districts instead."

Grofman also noted the new map keeps Dearborn whole instead of the past map's fragmentation of the city, addressing concerns from Dearborn area residents.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com