Recent cases support ending prison gerrymandering, is Cranston next?

Memorandum of law filed in Davidson v Cranston, summarizing Evenwel and Calvin's condemnation of prison gerrymandering.

by Aleks Kajstura, April 14, 2016

Davidson v. City of Cranston, a case filed in 2014 seeking to end prison gerrymandering in Cranston, Rhode Island, is getting rolling again. After an initial victory for the plaintiffs, the case was put on hold awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruing in Evenwel v. Abbott.

Then just a couple of weeks before the Evenwel decision came down, a federal court struck down a redistricting plan in Jefferson County, Florida, deeming prison gerrymandering unconstitutional.

Now, at the request of the Judge in Davidson, Plaintiffs submitted a memorandum of law, summarizing the courts’ reasoning in Evenwel and Florida condemning prison gerrymandering. The request comes as both sides have pending requests to the court for a summary judgement; stay tuned for updates.