Ex-lawmakers ask for special master to to help redraw 13 Detroit districts after court ruling

A group of Detroiters, including former state lawmakers and city officials, are calling for a special master to be appointed to assist or oversee the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission in redrawing map lines in 13 Detroit area legislative districts.

The group, comprised of a number of citizens who filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, said the maps drawn by the Commission in 2021 were a violation and diluted the Black voting power.

A federal three-judge panel sided with the plaintiffs and ordered that the legislative districts be redrawn.

All parties involved will have to appear in early January to discuss with the court how they plan to proceed with redrawing the maps.

Former state lawmakers who represented Detroit joined citizens Wednesday to call for the special master to help ensure Detroit is properly represented.

“You have members from Hazel Park and West Bloomfield deciding the fate of Detroiters, a tax that they won’t have in their own community, but they’re going to subject us to it,” said Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, who serves as a spokesperson for the Detroiters who filed the lawsuit because of her experience as a former state representative.

Dagnogo said a strong Black caucus is needed in Lansing.

“If you’ve never seen the process of being in a caucus room, we go to war to lift up the issues for Detroit. And you have to have strong voices in that room.”

“Black leadership matters,” said Natalie Bien-Aime, one of the plaintiffs. “And, under our watch, we want to make sure that we are represented with people who look like us, understand our communities, can speak to the voices of our concerns.”

Cheri Hardmon, Senior Press Secretary for Benson, told 7 Action News, “Per the state constitution, Secretary Benson has a non-voting, ministerial role on the Commission and does not have a position on its processes or procedures.”

The recent three-judge panel ruling said that the “Commission drew boundaries of plaintiffs’ districts predominantly on the basis of race. We hold that those districts were drawn in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Consitution.

In their opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge and U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney were critical of the Commission.

And while U.S. District Judge Janet Neff agreed with the ruling, she wrote separately because she believed the opinion was “unnecessarily harsh” to the Commission and those who assisted them.

“I personally was was not surprised by the ruling,” Commissioner Rebecca Szetela said. “I had identified some of the issues raised in the ruling and my dissenting report going back to 2022.

7 Action News reached out to Edward Woods III, Executive Director for the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.

Woods issued the following statement:

“In reviewing the Court’s decision, the Commission agrees with Justice Janet T. Neff that the ‘opinion is unnecessarily harsh to the Commission.’” Guided by Michigan’s Constitution, the Commission carefully followed the seven-ranked redistricting criteria to draw fair maps with citizen input.

“To ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act, the Commission considered race to comply with this Act and not at the expense of the 14th amendment. The Court came to a different conclusion. The Commission will consider its options moving forward.”

Click on the video to hear from one Commissioner, the plaintiffs and former lawmakers.