NRAF Statement on Ohio Republicans Appeal to the Supreme Court
For Immediate Release
October 15, 2022
Contact
Jena Doyle
doyle@redistrictingaction.org
NRAF Statement on Ohio Republicans Appeal to the Supreme Court
Washington, D.C. --Yesterday, Ohio Republicans announced that they plan to appeal the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision ruling the congressional map unconstitutional, to the Supreme Court of the United States. In response, Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF), released the following statement:
“For the past twelve months, Ohio Republicans have ducked, dodged, and delayed instead of drawing a constitutionally compliant congressional map. Appealing the Ohio Supreme Court’s carefully reasoned decision rejecting the gerrymandered congressional map to the U.S. Supreme Court – after flouting the state court’s deadlines – is yet another attempt by Ohio Republicans to delay their responsibility, undermine the Ohio Supreme Court, and deprive Ohioans of their constitutional rights.
“And here’s what’s worse: Ohio’s Republican lawmakers themselves referred the constitutional prohibition against partisan gerrymandering to the ballot in 2018, and voters approved the amendment nearly 3-to-1. But now those same lawmakers are arguing that the law they created can’t actually be enforced. Ohio’s Republicans reaped the benefit of putting forth a policy overwhelmingly favored by Ohio’s voters – a new constitutional law designed to protect those voters – but want none of the responsibility or accountability for complying with that law if it takes away any of their power. The disrespect and contempt toward their own constituents is shocking.”
After the Republican-led General Assembly’s failed to meet a previous court ordered deadline in August, the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission then also missed its own deadline, in September, to pass a new congressional map, as ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court had set those deadlines in accordance with the state’s constitution.
The Court’s order requiring a new map was the result of a lawsuit filed in March 2022 by Ohio voters supported by the NRAF in their ongoing effort to secure a fair congressional map in Ohio. In July, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down Ohio’s second congressional map as a partisan gerrymander. The map, passed by the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission in March, made only limited changes to the state’s original congressional map, which was passed by the Republicans in the state legislature in November 2021 and invalidated as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander by the Ohio Supreme Court on January 14.
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