You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
More redistricting drama in Ohio last week. Cleveland.com reports that the Ohio Supreme court recently rejected the third set maps for the Ohio legislature which were specificially designed for Republican advantage.
Anticipating an appeal in federal court, state justices sent a message in the decision suggesting that the federal court’s April 20th deadline could be extended and still keep the August 2nd Ohio primary date.
As expected, GOP activists appealed to keep the gerrymandered maps. Last Friday, April 21, a three-judge federal panel responded that they would not act – yet. The panel questioned the Ohio court’s jurisdiction in forcing any date changes for the primary, but agreed to wait until May 6th until taking further action. The federal panel said that after that date, they would accept the third set of GOP maps which the state court had rejected.
The panel wrote: “We are acutely aware of its flaws, yet with deference to the state in mind, we see it as the best of our bad options.”
Fair maps advocates are watching carefully. The US Supreme Court opted in 2019 to leave redistricting to the state courts, so the case is unlikely to go further.
So it’s back to the drawing board in Ohio.
Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it’s something we DO.”
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl. Visit our website at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org, or for more information on Ohio’s redistricting, visit FairDistrictsOhio.org.