Cotlow, et al. v. Growe, et al., No. C8–91–985, is an action that was commenced in Hennepin County District Court in January 1991 challenging the constitutionality of the then-existing state legislative and congressional districts based on population changes reported in the 1990 Census. After the 1991 legislative session at which the legislature enacted a state legislative redistricting plan, by order dated June 4, 1991, the Chief Justice appointed a three-judge special redistricting panel to hear and decide the
Cotlow case. The panel found the plan enacted by the 1991 Legislature invalid in October 1991. The 1992 Legislature passed a revised state legislative plan and a congressional redistricting plan, both of which were vetoed by the governor. In the absence of legislatively-enacted redistricting plans, the panel entered final judgment adopting a revised state legislative redistricting plan on January 31, 1992, and in a Final Order dated April 15, 1992, adopted a plan for congressional redistricting, subject to a then-pending federal district court injunction.
The Supreme Court subsequently held that the redistricting plans adopted by the panel should be used in future elections, rather than the plans adopted by a federal judicial panel.
Growe v. Emison, 507 U.S. 25, 113 S.Ct. 1075, 122 L.Ed.2d 388 (1993). In the following legislative session, the legislature enacted into law the redistricting plans adopted by the
Cotlow panel.
See Act of April 11, 1994, ch. 406, 1994 Minn. Laws 94 (congressional redistricting); Act of May 9, 1994, ch. 612, 1994 Minn. Laws 130 (legislative redistricting).