Federal court grants final approval to new Michigan Senate districts 

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission holds a public hearing in Lansing. Photo by Anna Gustafson

Final approval has been given to a new map for a half-dozen state Senate districts created by Michigan’s redistricting panel.

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) was forced to redrew the metro Detroit districts after it was ordered to do so by a federal court late last year, The three-judge panel determined 13 state House and Senate maps were drawn unconstitutionally and improperly reduced Black voting percentages in legislative districts impacting the City of Detroit, which is 77% African American. 

In an opinion issued Friday, the panel ruled that the  Senate map, identified as Crane A1, was drawn race-blind. 

“We have reviewed the record before us and agree that the new Senate map complies with this court’s December 21, 2023 order,” the opinion said. “Federal law provides us no basis to reject the Commission’s remedial Senate plan. The Secretary of State may proceed to implement the Commission’s remedial Senate plan for the next election cycle.”

The new map will go into effect for the 2026 election cycle.

The process to create the new Senate map was begun by the 13-member commission starting in April, and including six public input hearings that concluded in June, followed by three days of deliberations, before it was approved on the sixth round of voting

“There’s certainly been a lot of ups and downs throughout this process,” said Commissioner Anthony Eid, who serves as an independent member on the panel, which has four Republicans, four Democrats and five independents. “There have been things that as a commission we’ve gotten right and things we’ve gotten wrong. We’re currently in the middle of putting together a report that will go over a few of those things in great detail. But I think right now we’re just happy and relieved that we made it this far.”

With final maps now approved for Michigan’s legislative districts, Eid says the commission has some final duties to attend to before entering its dormancy phase.

“The plan at this point is to tie up the loose ends that we have,” he said. “We have to submit these reports, both the commission report and the dissenting reports, and make sure all the bills are paid. Once we tie up those loose ends, the plan is to go into our hibernation state and then we essentially won’t be here unless there is another lawsuit down the line.”

Executive Director Edward Woods clarified that the MICRC is currently operating on the $3.3 million appropriation that was included in a Fiscal Year 2024 budget supplemental, with an additional $2.9 million appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget approved last month. 

“We’ll need both appropriations to cover our current and anticipated expenses associated with the Agee case, including the plaintiff’s attorney fees,” said Woods. “As it relates to the plaintiff’s attorney fees, we do not have that invoice and will need to use FY 25 funds to cover it.”

Partisan fairness scores for the map indicate Democratic candidates would have an average winning margin of approximately 63.6%, which could potentially give Democrats a 21-17 advantage in the state Senate. They currently hold a 20-18 majority. 

The caveat is that the map also pits Democratic incumbents against each other, including Sens Paul Wojno (D-Warren) and Veronica Klinefelt (D-Eastpointe), although Wojno is term-limited.

The finalized Senate district boundaries will now be utilized for the 2026 election. The MICRC successfully redrew seven new House districts in March, in time for elections later this year.

The MICRC was created as the result of a constitutional amendment voters passed in 2018 to reduce the partisan nature of drawing district boundaries. Previously, the Legislature would design new districts every 10 years and the governor would sign off, providing an advantage to whichever political party was in power at the time.