ACLU, voter groups sue in Ohio over new legislative maps

A lawsuit filed Thursday challenges Ohio’s newly drawn state legislative districts as giving an extreme and unfair advantage to the Republican Party, which controls the state’s new redistricting commission.

The American Civil Liberties Union, its Ohio arm and a law firm filed the litigation on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio Chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and several individual voters against members of the commission.

The groups say the suit is the first such legal action in the nation against district maps redrawn using results of the 2020 census.

It targets a map the powerful new Ohio Redistricting Commission passed in a 5-2 vote along party lines last week. The panel failed to reach the bipartisan consensus necessary to pass the normal 10-year map of state House and Senate districts envisioned under redistricting and so was forced to create a fouryear map.

Republican Senate President Matt Huffman, who took a leading role in crafting the maps, has defended the maps as constitutionally compliant and rejected the idea they are gerrymandered.

Freda Levenson, legal director of the ACLU of Ohio, called the maps an “extreme partisan gerrymander” that flagrantly violates the redistricting rules laid out in the Ohio Constitution, after approval by a strong majority of Ohio voters.

“The blatant defiance of the reforms that were overwhelmingly passed by Ohio voters just six years ago is not only a violation of law, but is also a slap in the face to the people of this state,” Levenson said in a statement.

“We are going to this state’s highest court to ensure that Ohio voters are able to have a voice in their government.”