Peoria Standard

State Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) isn’t letting up on the gas in his push to change the redistricting landscape in Illinois.

“We submitted a proposal that fixes specific constitutional problems with the current map that had only served to keep entrenched incumbents in power,” Barickman, chair of the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus, said in a news release. “Democrats led by Gov. Pritzker had only one thing in mind when drawing their map – protecting politicians at the expense of the people.”

With the matter now being argued in the federal court system, Barickman and his Republican colleagues are pushing legislation that would assure more districts of being home to communities with minority voting-age populations above 50% and better opportunities for voters. The measure also seeks to trigger increases in Latino Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) House and Senate districts and an additional CVAP Black House District in the Metro East area.

“During depositions, witnesses confirmed under oath that the maps passed by the Democrats and signed by Gov. Pritzker protected incumbents by having sitting politicians draw their own districts,” Barickman said. “As noted in court filings, Democratic lawmakers were drawing their own districts without even using data on minority populations.”

The  legal tug-of-war comes on the heels of a three-judge federal court panel concluding that the initial maps drawn by Democrats were unconstitutional based on them running afoul of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to Capitol News Illinois.

As part of the ruling, the judges found that “the General Assembly may not dilute a large percentage of voters to advance a preferred political outcome,” ABC 20 reported.

The panel of U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr., U.S. District Judge Jon DeGuilio, and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Michael B. Brennan is now set to hear a three-case lawsuit opposing the maps on Dec. 6, according to the Will County Gazette.

Not long ago, Barickman declared himself “invigorated” from the federal court panel's verdict rendering the state's redistricting maps "unconstitutional," according to the Kankakee Times, since they were drawn before official data from the U.S. Census Bureau had been released.

"Governor J.B. Pritzker betrayed the people of Illinois when he broke his campaign promise and attempted to legitimize his party's blatant grab for power," Barickman said in a statement on Oct.19. "Pritzker's actions harmed countless Illinoisans, with the Court acknowledging that states 'do not receive a blank check to dilute votes.'"