Iowa Supreme Court Issues Statement on Redistricting
April 15, 2021
Last Thursday, the Iowa Supreme Court released a statement regarding the potential role it could play in the legislative redistricting process. The court noted that “if the general assembly is not able to meet the constitutional deadline, the supreme court tentatively plans to meet its constitutional responsibility by implementing a process which permits, to the extent possible, the redistricting framework presently set forth in Iowa Code chapter 42 to proceed after September 15. Under such a process, the supreme court would “cause the state to be apportioned into senatorial and representative districts to comply with the requirements of the constitution prior to December 31.” You can read the court’s full statement.
Every 10 years, the Legislature is tasked with approving new boundaries for state legislative districts and U.S. House Districts. The Legislative Services Agency (LSA), a nonpartisan government agency, actually draws the maps and one significant element the agency needs to perform this task is the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. That data is not expected to be available until after September 15 and because of that, the Iowa Supreme Court could ultimately end up being the entity that draws and sets the maps. There are still many unknowns as this is a fluid situation. Read more from Radio Iowa.