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For Immediate Release
Contact:

Kati Phillips, 773-392-3809, kphillips@commoncause.org

Common Cause to Host Media Briefing on Gerrymandering and the First Amendment Featuring a Top Election Law Professor and a Student Whose Vote was Diluted by Gerrymandering

Media are invited to an on-the-record briefing today on Gerrymandering and the First Amendment in the lead up to Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek, two landmark redistricting cases scheduled for oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26.

WASHINGTON

Media are invited to an on-the-record briefing today on Gerrymandering and the First Amendment in the lead up to Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek, two landmark redistricting cases scheduled for oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26. The briefing will feature Daniel Tokaji, a nationally recognized election law professor and amici brief filer in the cases, and Love Caesar, a student at North Carolina A&T State University, a historically black university which was cut into two gerrymandered districts. Common Cause Director of Redistricting Kathay Feng will provide an overview of the cases and explain the historic opportunity the Supreme Court has to rule gerrymandering unconstitutional once and for all.

WHO: This media briefing call will feature three speakers:

  • Daniel Tokaji, nationally recognized election law and First Amendment professor. Read the amici brief he filed with 10 other leading law professors in the cases here. It explains how gerrymandering violates the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • Love Caesar, a student at North Carolina A&T State University and Democracy Fellow with Common Cause North Carolina, whose vote is diluted by gerrymandering. A&T is the largest historically black university in the nation and it was cut in half in a gerrymander.
  • Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at Common Cause. Feng is an expert on the two cases and is the architect of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, considered the gold-standard in independent, citizen-led redistricting.

WHAT: Media briefing on Gerrymandering and the First Amendment

WHEN: 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, March 13

WHY:Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek, two cases challenging partisan gerrymandering, are scheduled for oral arguments March 26 at the Supreme Court. Taken together, the challenges to the North Carolina and Maryland maps present the best test case to end partisan gerrymandering and set a new national standard for redistricting prior to the 2020 census.

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