OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A huge ruling has come down in the battleground state of Ohio as November’s midterms are months away and the 2024 presidential election looms.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to reject a GOP-drawn map of U.S. House districts as gerrymandered, sending it back to meet constitutional parameters approved by Ohio voters.
However, new maps will not be put in place until 2024.
“The ruling adds to a string of court defeats for Ohio’s ruling Republicans amid the once-per-decade redistricting process that states undertake to reflect population changes from the U.S. Census. Despite those failures in court, however, Ohio’s 2022 congressional primaries went forward on May 3 under an earlier invalidated U.S. House map, and its legislative primaries under an unconstitutional Statehouse map take place Aug. 2,” Politico reported.
“The map created 10 safe Republican seats and five Democratic seats. However, the high court’s majority said the latest map packed Democrats into three congressional districts that would heavily favor a Democratic candidate, while unfairly splitting counties and cities around heavily-Democratic Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus,” Politico added.
Now, the Republican-controlled General Assembly will have 30 days to act. If lawmakers are unable to get a new map done, the debate will return to the redistricting panel.
In their dissent, Justices Sharon Kennedy and Pat DeWine argued the constitution doesn’t define what “unduly favors” means and that the majority’s analysis is wrong.
They wrote in the dissent that the majority’s decision “demonstrates that the majority has once again assumed an oversized role in the process of drawing a congressional-district map by perpetuating its own standard of what constitutes ‘unduly favoring’ a political party.”
As noted by Dave Wasserman, the U.S. House editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, this may not be bad news for Republicans in the short or long term.
As expected, OH Supreme Court throws out GOP map as an illegal gerrymander – but it’s too late to redraw in time for 2022. Expect Republicans to draw a slightly different gerrymander in time for 2024, when the court’s balance of power could shift right. https://t.co/gv3GUxMFnb
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) July 19, 2022
The battle over newly-redrawn congressional maps has heated up months before November’s midterms and could play a huge role in the 2024 elections.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Louisiana state legislature by allowing the state’s Republican-drawn congressional map to remain in place.
A federal judge had previously ruled the map violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered lawmakers to redraw the state’s six congressional districts to include two in which Black voters were in the majority.
In a brief one-page order, the Supreme Court said it would wait until next term to rule on the matter given there’s a similar case from Alabama scheduled to be argued next term, which begins in October.
The Court ruled 6-3 on the case, with the three liberal Justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan – dissenting.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry asked the Supreme Court to freeze the lower court opinion, arguing that the state’s congressional boundaries cannot be drawn to create two majority-black districts without “segregating the races for purposes of voting” in violation of court precedent.
Prior to that, the Florida Supreme Court delivered a gigantic win to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the Sunshine State by “rejecting a request for a hearing over the state’s new congressional map that eliminates a majority Black district.”
Conservative commentator Greg Price noted on Twitter how big of a deal this is for Republicans going into crucial midterms in November.
“The Florida Supreme Court is leaving DeSantis’ congressional maps in place that create four new GOP-leaning districts. They will be the maps used this November,” Price wrote.
BREAKING: The Florida Supreme Court is leaving DeSantis' congressional maps in place that create four new GOP-leaning districts. They will be the maps used this November.
Another fat L for Marc Elias.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 2, 2022
In early June, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Republicans’ new redistricting law is legal and will make it more difficult for the only Kansas congressional delegate to win re-election.
The report noted that lawsuits over newly redrawn congressional districts have flooded courtrooms all over the United States as Republicans seek to recapture the House majority this year as well as the evenly-divided Senate. Maps in at least 17 states have led to lawsuits, the Brennan Center for Justice noted.
