League of Women Voters of Ohio v. La Rose (now League of Women Voters v. Huffman) (congressional map)

Note: For the reader’s convenience, the two lawsuits filed against successive versions of Ohio’s congressional maps were consolidated into a single timeline and case summary. The first case is LWV Ohio v. LaRose, filed on November 30, 2021, and the second is LWV Ohio v. LaRose (II), filed on March 22, 2022. This case was also joined with Neiman v. Huffman, another case challenging the congressional maps.

In 2018, Ohio voters amended the state Constitution to ban partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts. The new amendment also created a new process for Congressional redistricting. The process would occur as follows: 

1. If 60% of the members of the legislature, comprised of at least half of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in each chamber, passed new congressional maps by the end of September after the Census, the congressional maps enacted would be in effect for a decade.
2. If the legislature failed to pass a map under the above requirements by the September deadline, the Ohio Redistricting Commission was required to produce new congressional maps supported by at least a simple bipartisan majority by the end of October. The Commission’s maps would also last ten years if it followed this process.
3. Finally, if neither of the above methods produced new congressional districts, then the Ohio Legislature would again be tasked with drawing new maps. The legislature could either enact maps lasting ten years through a 60% vote, comprised of at least one-third of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in each chamber.
4. Alternatively, the legislature could enact maps by a simple majority which would only last for four years. If the legislature enacted maps by a simple majority, the maps were required to comply with the following guidelines: districts could not be drawn to unduly favor or disfavor a political party or incumbents, must be compact, and must not unduly split counties, townships, and municipal corporations.

The amendments also limited splitting counties or dividing cities with populations greater than that of a single congressional district (approximately 737,465) between multiple districts. The amendments also banned splitting up municipalities with populations between 100,000 and that of a congressional district.

Upon receipt of the 2020 Census data, the Republican-controlled legislature in Ohio failed to enact new Congressional maps before the September deadline. The Ohio Redistricting Commission, composed of a 5 – 2 Republican majority similarly failed to enact maps before the required deadline. On November 20, 2021, Governor Mike DeWine signed into law new congressional maps, which were passed by a simple majority with no support from Democrats.

On November 30, 2021, the League of Women Voters of Ohio (LWVO), together with the A. Phillip Randolph Institute of Ohio and several individual Ohioans, filed a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court, asserting the new maps were a partisan gerrymander in violation of the Ohio Constitution. The complaint cited multiple statistical analyses that showed Republicans would gain significantly more seats than their statewide vote share indicated. According to the plaintiffs, this was accomplished through several methods, including the placement of two incumbent Democrats into new districts with a majority of Republican voters and splitting large, Democratic urban counties and combining them with strongly Republican rural areas.

On January 14, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the maps as a partisan gerrymander, ordering the legislature to draw a nonpartisan, constitutionally compliant map within 30 days. The legislature failed to do so, and the Ohio Redistricting Commission, as required by the state Constitution, enacted a new map on March 2, 2022.

On March 22, 2022, LWVO and the A. Phillip Randolph Institute of Ohio filed a second lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court (LWV Ohio v. LaRose (II)), asserting several districts from the remedial maps passed by the Ohio Redistricting Commission violated the state Constitution’s requirements for districts. The complaint alleged that the new Fifteenth Congressional District was not compact and combined Democratic voters in Franklin County with several strongly Republican counties in Ohio. Furthermore, the plaintiffs argued that similar splits in Cuyahoga County, Summit County, and Hamilton County, which contain the cities of Cleveland, Akron, and Cincinnati, respectively, were intended to create more Republican districts while reducing the number of Democratic districts.

On July 19, 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and ordered a new map to be drawn in thirty days. The new maps are to take effect for the 2024 election. Currently, the legislature has not drawn new congressional maps. On November 8, 2022, elections for Ohio’s Congressional delegation were held under maps found unconstitutional in the court’s July opinion.

On October 14, 2022, several Republican legislators appealed to the United States Supreme Court, asking for the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to be reversed, citing the Independent State Legislature Theory advanced in Moore v. Harper.

LWVO was represented in this matter by Covington and Burling LLP, ACLU of Ohio, and ACLU.