Minnesota: urban/rural gerrymandering suit tossed
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports: Rural residents are not a class of voters entitled to special protection, a judge has ruled in Glencoe, Minn.
Judge Thomas Murphy ruled that it was legal for the McLeod County Board to reapportion itself in 2002 so that Hutchinson, Minn., is represented by 60 percent of the commissioners although it had only 37.5 percent of the county's population.
In a lawsuit filed last year against the county and city, Douglas Krueger of Glencoe said the result was that county commissioners favored road and other projects in the Hutchinson area, often by 3-2 votes.
Each of the Hutchinson districts includes some rural voters, and Murphy ruled earlier this month that the districts are well within the 10 percent population variance allowed by state law. He said that Krueger failed to show any "disparate" treatment and that no case law "established 'rural' or 'urban' as a constitutionally recognized class for the purpose of judicial protection in a redistricting matter." -- Judge rules against suit in McLeod County