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Kansas Supreme Court Says Race Wasn't Obvious Factor in New Kansas Congressional Map

Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall authored the court's ruling that upheld the state's congressional redistricting map despite claims it was racially and politically gerrymandered to benefit Republicans. (Photo by Thad Allton, The Kansas Reflector)
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall authored the court's ruling that upheld the state's congressional redistricting map despite claims it was racially and politically gerrymandered to benefit Republicans. (Photo by Thad Allton, The Kansas Reflector)

 

The Kansas Supreme Court found that civil rights groups challenging the state’s new congressional map failed to prove Republicans used race as a predominant factor in the redrawing of districts.

The court also said that the Kansas Constitution lets lawmakers consider partisanship when drawing new district maps for elections.

In May, the court tossed out a challenge to the map. It released its  full reasoning in the ruling made public on Tuesday. The court said the arguments for ditching the map were anchored in legally untested ideas that politicians couldn’t draw maps to benefit a particular political party.

“Plaintiffs put their proverbial eggs in an uncertain and untested basket of novel state-based claims, hoping to discover that the Kansas Constitution would prove amenable,” the court said in the ruling. “But the constitutional text and our longstanding historical precedent foreclose those claims.”

The map, now in place for the next 10 years, helps Republicans trying to maintain, or even increase, their hold over the state’s congressional delegation. In particular, it threatens Democrats’ ability to hold the Kansas City area seat and the reelection of U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the sole Democrat from Kansas in Congress.

Kansas courts had never previously heard a case on whether gerrymandering violates the state constitution. It now sets a standard for how far one political party in Kansas can gerrymander congressional districts.

The court previously  announced its ruling to uphold the congressional in a short decision released in May, but did not include a full explanation. The high court’s decision reversed a ruling from a Wyandotte County district court judge, who found that the map was unconstitutional because it was politically and racially gerrymandered.

The plan split racially diverse Wyandotte County into two separate districts and shifted left-leaning Lawrence into the largely rural, Republican-dominated 1st Congressional District.

Critics of the plan said those moves diluted the power of Democratic voting blocs and would make it harder for Davids to win re-election. Republican lawmakers who crafted the map said the changes to the districts were needed because of population shifts in Kansas.

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Dylan Lysen reports on politics for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @DylanLysen. The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of Kansas Public Radio, KCUR, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

 

The Kansas News Service produces essential enterprise reporting, diving deep and connecting the dots in tracking the policies, issues and and events that affect the health of Kansans and their communities. The team is based at KCUR and collaborates with public media stations and other news outlets across Kansas. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org. The Kansas News Service is made possible by a group of funding organizations, led by the Kansas Health Foundation. Other founders include United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, Sunflower Foundation, REACH Healthcare Foundation and the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.