Citizens' Initiative That Would Disempower Urban Voters Withdrawn

On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon, DWT's Evan Christopher successfully challenged the ballot title of a redistricting initiative in Oregon that would have negatively impacted urban and ethnic communities. The proposed measure, which backers originally hoped to place on the ballot in November 2020, would have removed redistricting responsibility from the state legislature and placed it in the hands of a newly created, 11-member commission, whose makeup would have heavily favored rural counties. Also troubling to the ACLU were the initiative's proposed changes to criteria for drawing legislative districts, eliminating "communities of common interest"—long used as a bulwark against gerrymandering— and instead focusing on geographic proximity. After hearing arguments from Evan, Oregon's Supreme Court unanimously decided to send the initiative's ballot title back to the Oregon secretary of state for revision that would more accurately describe the measure's impact. Five months later, the petitioners withdrew their initiative.