(COLUMBUS, OHIO 2/9/2021) — This week, the Ohio Supreme Court again struck down the unconstitutional state Senate and House maps adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.
The Brennan Center for Justice along with the Reed Smith law firm filed objections to the redrawn maps on behalf of CAIR-Ohio and co-plaintiffs.
The Court’s explicit redraw orders were ignored, and the process was, again, hosted privately, without real input from the public. The redrawn maps still unduly favored one political party and although the Commission had compliant maps before them to consider, they chose instead to base the redraw from the already invalidated maps.
The court gave the redistricting commission 10 days— until Feb. 17 – to redraw state Senate and House maps that meet the constitutional requirements, which they have failed to do twice now.
In regard to the congressional map, which was also struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court, the legislature has chosen to not work on a new map, so the redraw falls back to the Commission. The Commission technically has 30 days — until March 14 – to draw a fair congressional map, but the filing deadline for congressional candidates is on March 3. CAIR-Ohio will continue to keep the community updated throughout this process.
