by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector
Topeka — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt wants the Kansas Supreme Court to block a pair of lawsuits challenging the legality of a new congressional map.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Loud Light filed separate lawsuits Monday in Wyandotte County District Court. The lawsuits argue the state constitution’s bill of rights provides protection against political and racial gerrymandering.
In a petition filed Friday, Schmidt asks the state’s highest court to determine whether the U.S. Constitution prevents state courts from considering a challenge to the redistricting of federal congressional maps.
“Plaintiffs’ political gerrymandering claim is not justiciable under the Kansas Constitution,” Schmidt wrote in the petition. “No judicially manageable standard for evaluating such claims exists, Kansas courts have not historically entertained such claims, and the Kansas Constitution has nothing at all to say about political gerrymandering.”
Sharon Brett, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said Schmidt’s “argument that Kansas courts are devoid of authority to interpret their own state constitution is without merit.”
“The Kansas Supreme Court can — and indeed should — determine whether legislation passed by the Kansas Legislature violates Kansans state constitutional rights,” Brett said. “To hold otherwise would give this Legislature virtually unchecked power to violate the constitutional rights of Kansans for pure partisan gain. We will vigorously oppose any attempt to strip the Kansas Supreme Court of this important check on legislative overreach.”
This is the first time a redistricting lawsuit has been filed in a Kansas state court.
Traditionally, federal courts have resolved disputes. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, determined in 2019 that partisan gerrymandering claims are beyond the reach of federal courts.
The GOP supermajority in the Legislature adopted a congressional map that divides the Kansas City metro into two districts, and carves Lawrence out of Douglas County to place it in a district that stretches to the Colorado border. The goal of the map is to make it more difficult for the state’s only Democrat in Congress, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, to win re-election.
Schmidt, a Republican, is running against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in this year’s governor’s race.
The ACLU of Kansas and Loud Light filed lawsuits on behalf of Kansas City, Kansas, and Lawrence residents who lost voting power in the redrawn map. The northern part of Wyandotte County, which was moved out of Davids’ district, has a majority Black and Latino population.
The legal argument centers on whether the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights contains specific provisions that protect voting rights.
“The constitution says very clearly that all political power is inherent in the people, and that the power of the government is for the people’s equal protection and benefit,” Brett said in an interview when the organization filed its lawsuit. “So each person in the state of Kansas should have equal ability to influence their legislators, elect the electors of their choice, and participate in the essential democracy of our state.”
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See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/18/kansas-attorney-general-asks-high-court-to-block-redistricting-lawsuits/.