A Kansas district court Monday struck down a Republican-drawn congressional map and declared the Kansas Constitution prohibits political gerrymandering. The proposed congressional map would have made it harder for the state’s only Democrat to win reelection next year. The judge ordered legislators to draft another map.
The Kansas lawsuit was first filed in February 2022 when Kansas Democrats, along with a voting rights group Loud Light and voters from the Kansas City and Lawrence areas, alleged that Kansas Republicans gerrymandered the map. The map originated in the Republican-controlled Kansas legislature and immediately prompted concerns over partisan and racial gerrymandering. The new map was manipulated so that, despite the fact that over forty percent of Kansans voted for Democratic candidates in recent statewide elections, all four Kansas congressional seats would likely be occupied by Republican representatives.
A key district at issue, the third district, is currently represented by Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids and consists of a large portion of racial and ethnic minority voters in the Kansas City metro area. The newly gerrymandered map, however, would move district lines to dilute those minority voters’ influence. As a result, several groups challenged the map under the Kansas Constitution.
Judge Bill Klapper ruled Monday in favor of the map’s challengers. He found that Kansas Republicans had intentionally and effectively gerrymandered the Kansas congressional map in violation of the Kansas constitution. Specifically, Klapper found the map violated Kansan’s right to equal protection, right to vote, right to free speech and assembly. Klapper also found Kansas Republicans manipulated map drawing techniques to dilute racial and ethnic minority voter influence through an abnormal legislative process, which limited public input into the map. Klapper condemned the fact that partisan interests permeated the process.
Following the decision, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced he would appeal the district court decision to the Kansas Supreme Court.
