The Alaska Constitution grants the state superior court original jurisdiction over challenges to state legislative districts, Alaska Const. art. VI, § 11, which the state supreme court has interpreted to include claims for partisan gerrymandering, see In the Matter of 2021 Redistricting Cases, 528 P.3d 40, 92 (Alaska 2023).
According to the Alaska Supreme Court, a claim for partisan gerrymandering is cognizable under the state constitution’s equal protection guarantee. Id. at 57 (citing Kenai Peninsula Borough v. State, 743 P.2d 1352, 1371 (Alaska 1987)). To prove the claim, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the Alaska Redistricting Board, which produces new legislative maps for the state each cycle,[1] discriminated against a “community of interest,” which the court defined as “(1) a geographically defined group of people who (2) share similar social, cultural, and economic interests and (3) believe they are part of the same coherent entity.” Id. at 88. Though a plaintiff need not show intentional discrimination to prove a partisan gerrymandering claim, id. at 58 n.60, the court will consider such evidence, including the process the Board followed to draw maps and the design of the maps themselves, id. at 58 (citing Kenai Peninsula, 743 P.2d at 1372). Applying this test, the court struck down part of the state senate map for the 2020 redistricting cycle because the Board had improperly combined white, affluent, and politically conservative voters in the Anchorage area with those who are more racially diverse, lower income, and less conservative. Id. at 89–94.
Under the Alaska Constitution, Alaska courts must give the Board an opportunity to produce remedial legislative maps. Alaska Const. art. VI, § 11. But if a court strikes down an amended map, then it can “mandate” its own remedial plan. In the Matter of 2021 Redistricting Cases, 528 P.3d at 101 (footnote omitted) (citing Alaska Const. art. VI, § 11). This is what happened during the 2020 redistricting cycle. After the Board produced a second unconstitutional state senate map and with the 2022 election cycle rapidly approaching, a trial court ordered the Board to adopt another plan for that cycle that the Board had initially considered but then rejected. In re 2021 Redistricting Plan, No. 3AN-21-08869CI, 2022 WL 7076058, at *29 (Alaska Super. Ct. May 16, 2022). That map preserved communities of interest that were at the heart of the constitutional violations in the Board’s first and revised plans. The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s implementation of the interim map and required the Board to produce another map for the remainder of the decade. In the Matter of 2021 Redistricting Cases, 528 P.3d at 101. The Board then chose to keep the interim plan in place until the next redistricting cycle. See Alaska Redistricting Board, 2023 May Final Proclamation, https://www.akredistrict.org/2023-may-final-proclamation/.
Endnote
[1] Alaska only has one congressional district and so the state does not have any congressional maps.