New Independent Maps brief to Supreme Court adds new citations from constitutional convention to bolster legal argument

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., July 29, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The recorded debates from the state's 1970 Constitutional Convention and previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings could not be clearer – the Illinois Supreme Court should reverse a recent Cook County Circuit Court ruling and order the Independent Map Amendment be put before voters in the upcoming November election, according to the coalition's opening brief filed Friday with the Court.

"The language of the Illinois Constitution and legislative history of the convention debates are indisputable," said Dennis FitzSimons, Chair of Independent Maps. "Redistricting reform is clearly a topic that can be addressed by a citizen initiated amendment, and the Independent Map Amendment is exactly what the men and women who wrote the constitution had in mind when they granted Illinoisans this power."

The 50-page brief is available on the Independent Maps website (www.MapAmendment.org).

The brief argues that the Cook County Circuit Court ruling is an erroneous interpretation of the Illinois Constitution and is contrary to both the plain language of the constitution and the legislative debates of the constitutional convention. "Indeed, if allowed to stand, the circuit court's ruling would effectively nullify the constitutional right of Illinois citizens to amend the legislative article through the initiative process, making it virtually impossible to craft a redistricting proposal that offers any meaningful change," the brief states.

Quoting extensively from the debates by the members of the convention, the brief demonstrates that the framers of the constitution identified redistricting as one of the "critical" areas that voters could address in a citizen-initiated amendment. While citizen-initiated amendments are limited to structural and procedural subjects contained in the legislative article, the constitution's "limited to" language was designed to prevent initiatives on substantive issues like taxes, abortion or the death penalty, but the language was not intended to stifle creativity of initiatives related to the legislature.

To continue reading the full news release, please click here.
To read the full text of the brief, click here.
For key points taken from the brief, click here. 

Paid for by Support Independent Maps.  A copy of our report filed with the State Board of Elections is (or will be) available on the Board's official website (http://www.elections.il.gov) or for purchase from the Illinois State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois.

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SOURCE Independent Maps

Related Links

http://www.mapamendment.org