Redistricting: Gerrymandering to Win Before a Vote is Cast

This course will deal with the process of reapportionment and redistricting of both Congress and state legislatures.

It will begin with a review of U.S. constitutional provisions that require reapportionment and redistricting, state constitutional and legal requirements, the history of reapportionment and redistricting in the 19th and 20th centuries and Supreme Court rulings that established the framework for the process as it exists in the 21st century and the role of the U.S. Census.

The course will cover federal and state court decisions interpreting those Constitutional and statutory requirements and the application of those requirements and the process known as Gerrymandering. The course will also cover the independent commission movement. It will feature an analysis of the reapportionment and redistricting that occurred in Connecticut in 2001 and 2011 as case studies of the process.

Arthur J. O’Neill is a resident of Newport, RI. He retired as an attorney after 47 years of practice in Connecticut. In 2021, he retired after 33 years as a state representative in Connecticut. In the legislature in 2004, he co-chaired the Select Committee of Inquiry that investigated Governor John Rowland for possible impeachment. Governor Rowland resigned during the investigation. Arthur O’Neill was also a member of the Connecticut Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee and the Commission in 2001 and 2011. He chaired the Connecticut Law Revision Commission, the Connecticut Legislative Regulations Review Committee, and served as Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee. He received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut and a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School.