[Mpls] Judge sides with city on redistricting suit

[List manager]

Federal Judge Jack Tunheim throws out lawsuit against the city's 
redistricting lines (scheduled to go into effect next year). This is 
not the Phyllis Kahn suit asking for early elections, but the so-called 
"Natalie Johnson Lee, et. al." case about whether the new districts 
were drawn fairly.

It's a 37-page decision. Here's an excerpt:

>         "The plaintiffs have raised important issues in their 
> challenge to the City of
>         Minneapolis'  2002 redistricting of City Council wards.  And 
> in recent years, the
>          Court has observed that a considerable number of 
> redistricting plans in other states
>         have been drawn in potentially unfair and bizarre ways.  
> However, that is not the case
>          in the City of Minneapolis.  After a thorough review of the 
> plan chosen by the
>         Redistricting Commission and careful consideration of the 
> extensive record in
>          this case, the Court can reach only one obvious conclusion:  
> the City's plan
>         passes all legal and constitutional tests and as such it is a 
> plan well done.
>         That other parties or interests, or even the Court for that 
> matter, may have chosen a
>         different plan is immaterial.  The plaintiffs challenge fails."
>
David Brauer
List manager