Federal Court Gives Redistricting Commission May Deadline

A federal court is giving the Ohio Redistricting Commission a deadline to come up with a new state legislative map plan or it will impose a previous map that was already ruled unconstitutional.

In their ruling, the court gives the commission until May 28 to come up with a new set of maps.

If that fails, the court says the third set of maps – which were previously struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court as unconstitutionally gerrymandered – would be implemented.

That would allow for a second primary to be held on August 2.

The current primary will be May 3 – but won’t have any Ohio House or Senate races on it.

The ACLU of Ohio says it’s very disappointed that a majority of the three-judge panel identified a map that has already been struck down as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander by the Ohio Supreme Court as the back-up option.

The Ohio Supreme Court, after rejecting a fourth set of maps earlier this month, gave the redistricting commission until May 6th to file a new plan.