By PETER WONG/Oregon Capital Bureau
A decision by the Oregon Supreme Court will enable lawmakers, not Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, to get first crack at redrawing legislative district boundaries despite a pandemic-caused delay in federal census data.
The court, in an opinion issued Friday, gives legislators until Sept. 27 to come up with a plan — even though the Oregon Constitution sets a deadline of July 1. After Sept. 27, if legislators do not come up with a plan, the Constitution gives the task to the secretary of state.
The Census Bureau says it will be late summer before it will release census-block data, which Oregon and other states rely on to redraw their political maps after each 10-year census. Nothing in state law bars Oregon from using other sources of data.
Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek, joined by Republican minority leaders, asked the court for an extension beyond July 1. Fagan said the court lacked the authority to order an extension, and that any delay would interfere with the timetables for the 2022 primary election. The filing deadline for the May 17, 2022, election is March 8.
The justices decided the matter based entirely on written arguments and did not conduct a hearing.
The court’s order takes effect April 19, unless Fagan requests a reconsideration from the court — a request that the court rarely takes up.
The court, in the opinion written by Chief Justice Martha Walters, said the deadlines specified in the Oregon Constitution are less important than the process laid out in amendments that voters approved in 1952 and updated in 1986.
Courtney, D-Salem, and Kotek, D-Portland, issued this statement after the court announced its decision: “The Supreme Court has done its job. Now it’s time for the Legislature to do its constitutional duty: to redraw the district boundaries for the state of Oregon in a way that’s fair and accurate. We have full faith in the legislative redistricting committees to lead this work.”
The court said that lawmakers can adopt a plan in a special session, rather than the 2021 regular session, which is scheduled to end June 28. If lawmakers do not meet the new deadline of Sept. 27, the court said that Fagan will have until Oct. 18 to come up with her own plan.
The court also set timelines for legal challenges to either plan. It said a plan must be final by Feb. 1 or Feb. 8, depending on whether lawmakers or the secretary of state draws up a plan.
The timelines do not change the filing deadline for the 2022 primary or the actual date of the election.
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