The American Democracy Minute for Oct. 18, 2022
Today’s Links
Articles:
Ohio Capital Journal – Ohio Republican legislative leaders appeal congressional map to U.S. Supreme Court
Associated Press – GOP lawmakers appeal Ohio map flap to US Supreme Court
Brennan Center – Ohio Supreme Court Rejects Third Set of Legislative Maps Over Partisan Gerrymandering
Groups Taking Action:
Groups Taking Action:
League of Women Voters OH, Fair Districts OH, Ohio Voter Rights Coalition
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Remember the scene in the movie Halloween, where Michael Meyers gets poked in the eye, falls out a window, then gets up to fight another day? Ohio’s gerrymandered Congressional maps are just as scary.
Monday, October 17, the Ohio Legislature’s Republican leadership announced that they would appeal the denial of their gerrymandered Congressional maps by the Ohio Supreme Court to the U.S. Supreme Court. But in 2018, Ohio voters passed a change to their constitution forbidding partisan gerrymandering with a 75% approval.
Over the last 18 months, the state’s high court consistently rejected competing Congressional and state legislature maps from both the GOP-dominated legislature and Redistricting Commission, citing gerrymandering. The maps for the 2022 midterm elections defaulted to a gerrymandered one, pending resolution of the deadlock.
In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a state gerrymandering case, saying that redistricting was fundamentally a state political question, and the federal courts shouldn’t decide it. Then in 2022, the Supreme Court ignored its own advice and decided to hear the pending Moore vs. Harper “Independent State Legislature” case. It’s technically about gerrymandering in North Carolina, but has negative ramifications for control of elections around the country. It’s not clear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the Ohio case or kick it back to the state.
Articles and groups taking action are linked at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl