'It's messy': The ups and downs of Michigan's inaugural citizens redistricting commission

For six days in November, 88-year-old Susan Smith sat on a polished wooden bench in a windowless federal courtroom in Kalamazoo as judges heard hours of testimony on the future of Michigan’s legislative maps. The testimony, as is the case with redistricting, was more granular than grand: Census Bureau data. Voting precincts. Racial voting age population. The location and the lore of Eight Mile.