ACLU asks high court not to OK redistricting delay

The ACLU of Ohio asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to reject the request of Ohio elected officials to at least temporarily set aside a lower court’s demand that they draw a new congressional map by June 14.

The Ohio attorney general wants the high court to stay a bipartisan district court ruling, arguing that the high court is expected to rule by the end of June on redistricting cases out of Maryland and North Carolina that could have a direct impact on Ohio’s case.

But the ACLU argued that allowing the process of drawing a new map to continue will cause no harm to state officials, but delaying it could cause real harm to the plaintiffs because it could give state leaders an excuse to say there is insufficient time to implement a new map.

“A stay could thus prevent a remedial map from being implemented in time for the 2020 elections, and therefore cause plaintiffs and Ohio voters once again to suffer the same constitutional violations that brought them to court in the first place,” the plaintiffs wrote.

A three-judge panel of U.S. District Court in Cincinnati found that the current congressional map is unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The court wants the Republican-controlled General Assembly to submit a new map by June 14 so it can be implemented for 2020.

Republicans have held 12 of Ohio’s 16 congressional districts since redrawing the lines in a secret Downtown hotel room in 2011.

The attorney general also argued that quickly drafting a new map would be “exceptionally unfair and confusing for voters and candidates.”

The ACLU also argued that, despite assertions by the state, the new congressional redistricting process approved by voters has no bearing on the 2020 election — the process begins after the 2020 census — and the new process would still allow the majority party to draw the map.

“The (district court) panel properly found that the challenged districts dilute the votes of Democratic voters because of their political affiliation in violation of the Equal Protection Clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment, the ACLU wrote.

A decision on the request for a stay is expected within 10 days.