Federal Court says Ohio Map Must be Redrawn
On May 3, a panel of three federal judges ruled Ohio’s current congressional map a result of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering and ordered a new map be drawn up for the 2020 election by June 14.
On May 3, a panel of three federal judges ruled Ohio’s current congressional map a result of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering and ordered a new map be drawn up for the 2020 election by June 14.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, a party to the suit, issued a press release last Friday announcing the decision.
“The court issued a meticulously detailed opinion concluding that Ohio’s map was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and ordered the state to enact a new remedial plan by June 14,” Freda Levenson, legal director for ACLU Ohio, said in the statement. “This opinion, declaring Ohio an egregiously gerrymandered state, completely validates every one of our claims and theories in every respect.”
The court’s opinion outlined the 2011 redistricting process, during which Republican dominance in the state government meant that “Republican state legislators could push through a remarkably pro-Republican redistricting bill without meaningful input from their Democratic colleagues.”
The court said Ohio Republicans used software that allowed them to predict the partisan outcomes of districts drawn for 2012, with an invidious partisan intent to disadvantage Democratic voters and entrench Republican representatives in power.
Non-partisan map drawing software, the court said, would not have provided U.S. Congressman Dave Joyce, whose 14th district includes Geauga County, to win his seat four times in races that were not competitive.
“The consistent election of the Republican candidate in District 14 is evidence of the durability of the
2012 map’s partisan effects and its entrenchment of Republican representatives in office,” the court’s opinion said.
The court added the current District 14 map is “extremely pro-Republican compared to the non-partisan simulated maps.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost disagrees with and has already vowed to appeal the court’s decision and seek a stay against its implementation.
“Ohioans already voted to reform how we draw our congressional maps. This protracted opinion takes that decision out of the hands of the people and is a fundamentally political act that has no basis whatsoever in the Constitution,” Yost said in a statement May 3.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which this year will hear cases from four other states whose congressional maps have also been ruled unconstitutional, must decide on the role courts can play in establishing guidelines for states to draw their districts.
Alora Thomas-Lundborg, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said the panel of federal judges found Ohio’s map to be an extreme gerrymander.
“This decision follows the trial in which the map was rightly dubbed a ‘geographic monstrosity.’ This court joins others nationwide that have struck down this unconstitutional practice,” she said.
