Ohio Congressional Redistricting Challenge (LWVO II)

Lawsuit filed on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Ohio and multiple voters challenging Ohio’s revised congressional map passed after the first map drawn with 2020 census data was struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court. The same group of plaintiffs sued over the first map. The plaintiffs allege that the new map “cracks” Democratic voters from multiple counties in order to make the 1st and 15th Congressional Districts more Republican in violation of the Ohio Constitution. The lawsuit asks the court to declare the challenged districts invalid and order the creation of new districts in time for the 2024 election cycle. On July 19, the court struck down the congressional map for violating the Ohio Constitution. This means new districts will be in place for the 2024 election cycle.

On Oct. 14, Ohio Republican lawmakers, invoking the independent state legislature theory, filed a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to review the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the state’s congressional map. The appeal to the Supreme Court was consolidated under Neiman v. LaRose, where all future Supreme Court filings can be found.

On June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court vacated the Ohio Supreme Court’s July 19, 2022 order and remanded the case back to the Ohio Supreme Court in light of its ruling in Moore v. Harper. On Sept. 7 2023, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the case at the petitioners’ request.

Last updated: September 7, 2023 10:46 am EST