ACLU files lawsuit challenging Ohio congressional map

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Ohio, challenging the state’s congressional map.

{mosads}The lawsuit accuses Ohio officials of giving Republicans a 12-4 advantage in the House of Representatives, even though the GOP has only won 51 percent to 59 percent of the vote in statewide elections in the past decade.

“The current Ohio map is one of the most egregious gerrymanders in recent history,” the lawsuit states. “This 12-4 map prevents large portions of Ohio’s voting population from ever having their votes meaningfully deployed to count, much less see their democratic will reflected, in their congressional delegation.”

BREAKING: We’re suing over Ohio’s congressional maps, which Republican operatives drew to guarantee themselves a supermajority in the state’s congressional delegation.

It’s unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering and must be tossed before 2020. https://t.co/4fgnCkpsRR

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 23, 2018

Ohio’s map was drawn in the redistricting after the 2010 Census. The lawsuit, filed in an Ohio district court, claims that it was secretly drawn in a hotel room only accessed by state and national Republicans, instead of by the Ohio General Assembly with the assistance of a bipartisan task force.

The lawsuit alleges that the Ohio map was a result of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering and asks that the court order a new map to be implemented before the next presidential election.

The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of the Ohio League of Women Voters, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which is a civil rights organization, and individual Democratic Ohio voters from each of the state’s 16 congressional districts. The defendants include Gov. John Kasich (R), Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) and state GOP congressional leaders. 

The lawsuit comes months after Pennsylvania officials were forced to draw a new congressional map after the old map was found to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered in favor of Republicans.