Full Wednesday Tribune story: "20 sue over council districts."

20 sue over council districts; Violations of federal and state representation laws cited, by Eric Scott Campbell (News-Tribune).

Twenty residents sued the city and the City Council Tuesday afternoon, claiming population imbalance in council districts and calling for a special commission to investigate.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by attorney Stephen Beardsley, cites data from the 2000 census and 2002 voter registration that shows District 2 has considerably more residents and voters than the other five districts. It calls the council’s failure to redistrict accordingly — “through inertia, lack of will, or the distraction of political infighting” — a breach of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and of state statute.