July 18, 2023
The city’s redistricting saga, marked by councillors blasting each other in the battle over the boundaries of the nine district-level Council seats, ended with a quiet federal court filing last Friday.
The filing said the two sides — attorneys representing City Hall and the plaintiffs who had opposed a redistricting map drawn last fall — had met on June 22, when the plaintiffs agreed not to challenge the new map approved by councillors on May 24 and signed into law by Mayor Wu on May 26.
The plaintiffs included former Dorchester Councillor Maureen Feeney, a former writer for the Boston Herald, and Councillor At-Large Michael Flaherty’s aunt, among others. Their lawsuit was bankrolled by the four councillors who opposed the map passed last fall: Flaherty, South Boston Councillor Ed Flynn, Dorchester Councillor Frank Baker, and Councillor At-Large Erin Murphy.
US Judge Patti Saris earlier this year ruled in favor of a preliminary injunction sought by the plaintiffs, saying that their case had a likelihood of success. The lawsuit claimed that councillors, in drawing a map last fall, wrongly allowed race to be a predominant factor.
The lawsuit, and ensuing court hearings, focused on Dorchester’s Neponset and Adams Village areas, which were carved up between Districts 3 (primarily Dorchester) and 4 (Dorchester and Mattapan).
Saris blocked last fall’s map and kicked the matter back to the councillors, who spent weeks hashing out a new one. The final map, drawn by Councillor At-Large Ruthzee Louijeune with input from her colleagues, made fewer changes to the boundaries of the district seats, and left Neponset and Adams Village in District 3, their original home.