District court judge rejects congressional map

TOPEKA, KAN. >> A Kansas district court judge on Monday struck down a new Republican-backed congressional map that would likely make it harder for the only Democrat in the state's delegation to win reelection this year.

It was the first time a court has declared that the Kansas Constitution prohibits political gerrymandering. The state attorney general's office notified the Kansas Supreme Court almost immediately to expect an appeal of the decision.

Lawsuits over new congressionaldistrict lines have proliferated across the U.S. with Republicans looking to recapture a U.S. House majority in this year's midterm elections. State courts have issued decisions favoring Democrats in North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and a new GOP map in Florida is being challenged. A mid-level appeals court in New York recently declared its new districts drawn unfairly to favor Democrats.

Monday's decision from Wyandotte County District Judge Bill Klapper in the Kansas City area came a little more than five weeks before the state's June 1 candidate filing deadline. He ordered legislators to draft another map after declaring that the challenged one not only was too partisan but diluted minority voters' political clout. Democrats have criticized the map as political gerrymandering. Lawsuits claimed it violated voting rights and constitutional guarantees of equal rights for all Kansas residents and freedom of speech and assembly. Critics also said the map was unacceptable under the state constitution because it diluted the political power of Black and Hispanic voters in the Kansas City area by splitting them up.

Top Republican legislators immediately dismissed the ruling as coming from a partisan judge because Klapper is an elected Democrat.