The lawsuit asks the Michigan Supreme Court to order the commission to redraw its maps.
The legal challenge argues that the commission's decision to eliminate majority-Black districts in the new U.S. House and state Senate maps and reduce the number of those districts in the new state House map violates the Voting Rights Act, the federal law that prohibits racially discriminatory voting districts that deny minority voters an opportunity to elect their preferred candidates.
During a Monday morning press conference, Nabih Ayad, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the lawsuit would be filed that same day. Ayad told the Free Press that additional plaintiffs signed on to the complaint after the press briefing, delaying the initial timeline.
While earlier draft complaints shared with the Free Press named more than 20 plaintiffs, the final complaint lists only five. Detroit state lawmakers are not listed as individual plaintiffs. Instead the plaintiffs include the Detroit Caucus — made up of state lawmakers who represent the city in the Legislature — as well as the Romulus City Council, Carol Weaver who serves as a member of the 14th Congressional District executive board, former state Rep. Wendell Byrd, D- Detroit, and Wayne County resident Darryl Woods. Ayad said that additional plaintiffs are expected to join the lawsuit.
Rep. Tenisha Yancey, D- Harper Woods, the chair of the Detroit Caucus, said not everyone in the caucus supported the lawsuit.
Yancey said that the caucus includes state Reps. Joe Tate, D- Detroit; Shri Thanedar, D- Detroit; Abraham Aiyash, D- Hamtramck; Cynthia Johnson, D- Detroit; Tyrone Carter, D- Detroit; Helena Scott, D- Detroit; Stephanie Young, D- Detroit; Karen Whitsett, D- Detroit; Mary Cavanagh, D- Redford Township and state Sens. Stephanie Chang, D- Detroit; Adam Hollier, D- Detroit; Sylvia Santana, D- Detroit; Marshall Bullock, D- Detroit and Betty Jean Alexander, D- Detroit.
The commission's voting rights attorney, Bruce Adelson, told the commission that the law does not require drawing majority-minority districts, where the share of nonwhite voters is above 50 percent. He told the commissioners that by spreading out Black voters across more districts, their maps could expand opportunities for Black-preferred candidates to win, especially in the state House.
But the lawsuit counters that Black-preferred candidates would struggle to win in the new districts. The new lines set back "the Black population of Michigan generations" and "almost completely politically silence" Black voters, the complaint states.
It alleges that in reducing the number of majority-Black districts, the commission diluted the voting strength of Black voters and violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
A previous allegation in earlier draft complaints shared with the Free Press that the commission also violated Section 5 of the law was removed from the final filing. A 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision essentially nullified that part of the law, and Michigan was not previously subject to its requirements.
The new maps dramatically change the racial composition of districts for Detroit lawmakers facing reelection.
Some state House lawmakers who currently represent districts home to a voting age population that is more than 90 percent Black were drawn into districts that are still majority-Black, but contain far fewer Black voters, according to data from Dave's Redistricting — an online mapping tool — and a Bridge Michigan analysis that identified where the homes of legislators fall in the new lines.
Adelson has said that many of the Detroit state House districts in place today unnecessarily concentrate Black voters, limiting their ability to influence elections in surrounding districts.
Other Detroit lawmakers who currently represent majority-Black districts were drawn into districts where Black voters no longer constitute the majority.
While some saw the share of white voters expand in their new districts, Reps. Tyrone Carter, D- Detroit, and Cynthia Johnson, D- Detroit, were drawn into a district where the share of white voters shrunk along with the share of Black voters. That district consolidated Hispanic voters in an effort to secure better representation for that community, which was previously split up.
The lawsuit appears poised to create tensions among Democrats who have celebrated the maps as their best shot to win majorities and those who argue Black voters were short-changed in the process.
"I hope that my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle are not being blinded by the fact that they have the opportunity to win the House to where they're going to allow the disenfranchisement of Black people," Yancey said during a press briefing.
It's possible to draw fair maps that contain majority-Black districts, she said.
The Michigan Democratic Party did not answer Free Press questions asking whether Lavora Barnes, the party's chair, supports the legal challenge and agrees with the allegation that the new maps would illegally disenfranchise Black voters.
"I do not want to see the diversity of Michigan's lawmakers diminished," Barnes said in a statement. "The ( Michigan Democratic Party) is committed to fighting to ensure fair representation for all Michiganders including giving Black and Brown voters the ability to elect their candidate of choice in a general election and in a primary."
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