Attorneys who challenged Ohio's 2022 congressional map want to use it again in 2024

Attorneys who once challenged Ohio's congressional map as unconstitutional now say it should be used in the 2024 election.

In July 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state's 15-district congressional map, ruling that it was drawn to unfairly favor Republicans over Democrats. The court ordered Ohio lawmakers to draw a new map for 2024.

But Senate President Matt Huffman and fellow Republicans challenged that decision with the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the Ohio judges had overstepped their bounds. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the Ohio Supreme Court, asking it to review the map in light of a recent North Carolina redistricting decision.

On Tuesday, attorneys who had challenged the 2022 Ohio congressional map asked the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss the case. They argued that Ohioans have already borne considerable costs and frustrations from redistricting disputes and the map used in the 2022 elections was good enough.

"(Our clients) strongly believe this is the best result under the circumstances for the people of Ohio who deserve certainty about the congressional map that they will be voting under in this cycle, at the very least," wrote attorney Don McTigue and several lawyers from the Elias Law Group, a Democratic firm specializing in election and redistricting law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and its client the League of Women Voters of Ohio and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's National Redistricting Action Fund had both challenged Ohio's congressional map. Both asked for the case to be dismissed.

"If the Supreme Court of Ohio ordered the current Redistricting Commission to redraw the congressional map, the politicians would likely just gerrymander again," said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. "That’s why we are focused on banning politicians from redistricting completely through the Citizens Not Politicians amendment."

Redistricting reform advocates are hoping to pass a new constitutional amendment that would replace Ohio politicians with a 15-member citizens commission, which would draw maps for Statehouse and congressional districts. That effort failed to clear its first hurdle, but proponents refiled Tuesday.

The Ohio Supreme Court is also under new leadership. Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican who won the role in 2022, would have ruled in favor of the maps. She was among the three Republicans who dissented in each redistricting ruling.

"Recent history shows that, despite our winning seven Ohio Supreme Court orders, manipulative map drawers were ultimately able to run out the clock," said Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio. "On top of this, the new Ohio Supreme Court is unsympathetic to gerrymandering challenges."

Spokespeople for legislative Republicans said they were reviewing the filing.

In 2022, Republicans won 10 congressional seats and Democrats won five using the map that the Ohio Supreme Court found unconstitutional. Cincinnati Rep. Greg Landsman flipped a Southwest Ohio district from Republican incumbent Steve Chabot.

Ohio lawmakers would still need to craft a new congressional map for 2026 because the districts were approved by Republicans over the objections of Democrats.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a seven-member panel of politicians, still must redraw maps for House and Senate seats after the Ohio Supreme Court repeatedly rejected them as unconstitutional. A hearing is set for Sept. 13.

Read the filing:

Motion to dismiss the challenge to 2022 congressional map by Jessie Balmert on Scribd

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Is Ohio's congressional map fight over? Attorneys ask to dismiss suit