Kansas redistricting map dilutes voices of minority voters, ACLU charges in newly filed lawsuit

The GOP-dominated Kansas House last week voted mostly along party lines to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the map, which draws districts for the state’s four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A legal challenge filed Monday to the controversial congressional redistricting plan passed by the Kansas Legislature calls it an attempt to dilute the voices of minority voters and requests that a Wyandotte County judge to strike it down.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of 11 Kansas residents by the ACLU of Kansas, the Campaign Legal Center and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, a multinational law firm based in Washington, D.C., asserts that the congressional map constitutes illegal partisan gerrymandering and violates the U.S. and Kansas constitutions.

The GOP-dominated Kansas House last week voted mostly along party lines to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the map, which draws districts for the state’s four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.