The NAACP is suing Connecticut over how it counts inmates when crafting legislative districts, arguing it weakens urban districts.
The civil rights organization hopes the case becomes a template for lawsuits in other states where inmates are included in the population counts of areas where they're imprisoned rather than their home districts.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson says including incarcerated people in the population counts for districts where prisons are located is unfair to the legislative districts where the inmates came from. He says the practice can give disproportionate weight to rural parts of states and impact representation and allocation of state and federal funds.
The federal lawsuit was filed Thursday.
A spokeswoman says the state attorney general's office will review the suit "and respond at the appropriate time in court."
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