First Circuit Holds That Voting District Does Not Have To Be Redrawn In "Prison Gerrymandering" Case

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled Tuesday that a city did not have to redraw its district lines for school committee and city council seats when one ward of the city included  prisoners in a state correctional institution, many of whom are barred from voting. In overturning a federal district court ruling earlier this year holding that Cranston, R.I.'s inclusion of a prison population in a voting district violated the Equal Protection Clause, the First Circuit instead relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Evenwel v. Abbott (2016), which held that the "one person, one vote" principle allows a state to design its legislative districts based on total population. The First Circuit case arose when plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union sued the City of Cranston when it decided to count the more than three thousand inmates at the state Adult Correctional Institution in Cranston's Ward 6. The inmates accounted for a quarter of Ward 6’s total population even though under state law, the prisoners were actually residents of their home counties for most other legal purposes, including voting, for those serving a non-felony sentence. The plaintiffs contended that including the prison population inflated Ward 6 constituents' voting power to the level as the other wards even though Ward 6 had fewer residents who had a political interest in local elections. The First Circuit rejected those arguments, noting the that the Supreme Court has deferred to state legislative decisions that included non-voters, such as transients or persons denied the vote, as part of districts'  population "so long as the apportionment scheme does not involve invidious discrimination." The case is Davidson v. City of Cranston, No. 16-1692 (1st. Cir. Sept. 21, 2016).