What they're not telling you: # Illinois Sued Over Allegedly Using Race As A Factor In Congressional Map Illinois state officials deliberately violated federal voting rights law by explicitly using race to draw congressional districts, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation on May 8, 2023. The lawsuit targets Governor JB Pritzker, the Illinois State Board of Elections, and executive director Bernadette Matthews for allegedly violating the 15th Amendment and the 1965 Voting Rights Act through the state's 2021 congressional redistricting process. The timing matters: the suit was filed just nine days after the Supreme Court's April 29 decision in Louisiana v.
# THE TAKE: Illinois' Redistricting Lawsuit Is Theater, Not Justice Here's what's missing from this "public interest" suit: Which firm? Which plaintiffs? Which maps, specifically? The Illinois Citizens Redistricting Commission's 2021 maps did weight race—documented in their own meeting minutes. Fine. But let's name who's really fighting: the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative outfit that's sued California, New York, and Alabama on identical grounds. Pattern recognition matters. The irony is *brutal*: Republicans gerrymandered Illinois for decades before Democrats took the pen. Now we're supposed to believe a right-wing legal shop suddenly discovered civil rights principles? Race-conscious redistricting is constitutionally messy—agreed. But this lawsuit isn't about constitutional purity. It's about power. Until the plaintiffs identify themselves and explain why they've ignored Republican racial gerrymandering in every red state, this is just expensive grandstanding. Show the receipts or admit what this really is.
What the Documents Show
Callais, which ruled that district boundaries drawn primarily with racial considerations are unconstitutional. The Public Interest Legal Foundation argues the state crossed a legal line that even the highest court had now explicitly redrawn. What makes this case unusual is the smoking gun documentation. When Pritzker signed the 2021 congressional map, he publicly stated that the "Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 ensures redistricting plans are crafted in a way that preserves clusters of minority voters if they are of size or cohesion to exert collective electoral power." The lawsuit quotes this statement directly, treating the governor's own words as an admission of intentionally using race to allocate districts. The foundation further argues that the Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2011 itself was structurally illegal, mandating racial considerations by ordering districts to be categorized as "crossover," "coalition," or "influence" districts based explicitly on minority voting patterns.
Follow the Money
The mainstream press has largely treated redistricting as a technical issue of mapmaking, focusing on Democratic versus Republican gerrymandering as a partisan chess match. What gets underplayed is the federal legal principle at stake: whether states can explicitly mandate racial considerations in redistricting under any circumstances. Pritzker's public justification—that the law "preserves" minority representation—frames the issue as protective, not restrictive. But the lawsuit inverts this framing, arguing that using race as a primary mapping factor, however well-intentioned, constitutes a violation of citizens' rights not to have their electoral power determined by racial classification. The state defendants have not responded to requests for comment, according to the source material. The lawsuit's resolution could establish precedent for how courts treat state voting rights laws that explicitly incorporate racial data in redistricting, particularly in the post-Louisiana v.
What Else We Know
Callais legal environment where the Supreme Court has signaled constitutional skepticism toward race-conscious mapmaking. For ordinary citizens, the broader implication is straightforward: the legal definition of voting rights protection is shifting. What Illinois argued was a safeguard for minority electoral power now faces federal challenge as potential discrimination. The outcome will signal whether states can maintain explicit racial considerations in redistricting at all—a question affecting how districts are drawn nationwide in future election cycles.
Primary Sources
- Source: ZeroHedge
- Category: Government Secrets
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