‘A Slap in the Face to Voters’: Kansas Supreme Court Upholds GOP Map

Voting rights advocates expressed anger and disappointment Wednesday after the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the state’s new Republican-drawn congressional map despite claims of partisan and racial gerrymandering.

KS Fair Maps, a coalition advocating for fair redistricting, said in a statement that state residents “were let down” by the decision, and that “this entire legislative process illustrates just what is wrong with Kansas politics right now—it was rushed, secretive, supported the agenda of one party, and dismissed the very valid and public concerns of Kansans.”

“The fact that it also blatantly discriminated against minority voters is also indicative of the way our politicians prioritize some Kansans over others,” the coalition continued. “The clear message from the Supreme Court is our state constitution and laws do not protect minority voters.”

Wednesday’s decision overturns a previous one from Wyandotte County District Court Judge Bill Klapper, who ruled that the state constitution protects against rigging the map to divide communities and color and wrote that “this court suggests most Kansans would be appalled to know how the contest has been artificially engineered to give one segment of the political apparatus an unfair and unearned advantage.”

The Kansas map could impact the reelection chances of Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids, who represents the 3rd District, in a cycle when fears are mounting that the party could lose its slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives amid a “tidal wave” of GOP voter suppression efforts.

As The Kansas City Star detailed:

The map divides Wyandotte County, the state’s most ethnically and racially diverse area, roughly along I-70. While voters south of the highway will stay in the district held by Davids, voters in the north will be in the 2nd District, held by Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner.

In addition to losing Democratic voters from northern Wyandotte County, the 3rd District now includes the conservative rural counties of Franklin and Anderson, and all of rural Miami County. Previously, only a portion of Miami County was in the district.

The newspaper noted that “liberal-leaning Lawrence will also move from the 2nd District, which has been competitive in the past, into the heavily Republican 1st District, which spans western Kansas. That will put the University of Kansas campus in the same district as towns along the Colorado border.”

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that “congressional maps in at least 17 states have inspired lawsuits” and while New York’s high court recently found that its new districts were rigged to benefit Democratic candidates, state courts have issued decisions against maps favoring the GOP in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Leaders at the ACLU also condemned the move. The legal director Sharon Brett vowing that the organization “will never stop fighting for the rights of all Kansans, and this decision won’t change that fact.”

“We’re obviously very disappointed for our clients,” she said. “Equal protection under our state’s constitution is supposed to mean something. But as a result of this decision, minority voters and Democratic voters will have their voices diluted for the next 10 years.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Jessica Corbett.