This week, House Democrats’ proposal to further rig Illinois’ maps came to a halt in the Senate. Their plan would have enshrined partisan power in our state’s Constitution and allowed rigged mapmaking to continue.
In April, Illinois House Democrats drove to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot regarding Illinois legislative maps. The language of House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 28 would have explicitly prioritized race over contiguousness and compactness in legislative redistricting.
However, a national decision handed down this week by the U.S. Supreme Court set forth U.S. constitutional law that reaffirms the relevance of “equal protection of the laws” to legislative redistricting. This nationwide constitutional law made the language and wording of HJRCA 28 extremely questionable. In response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Illinois Senate’s leadership announced the Senate would not move forward with HJRCA 28.
The state Senate decision means that the partisan language of HJCRA 28 will not appear on the November 2026 ballot. The proposed amendment had come under strong attack for its violation of the principle that legislative districts ought to be contiguous and compact. Ideally, a legislative district should not be shaped like a snake with a safely entrenched incumbent living at one end of it.
I will continue to fight for fair maps that allow voters to choose their leaders, rather than the current rigged system where politicians choose their voters.