Kansas' highest court has upheld the legislature's redistricting efforts. The vote was 4 - 3.
The state Supreme Court issued only a brief opinion last month approving the new congressional map without explaining the reasoning behind its decision.
Opponents claim that the new map makes it harder for the only Democrat in the Kansas congressional delegation, two-term Rep. Sharice Davids, to win reelection in her Kansas City-area district.
One dissenting justice, Eric Rosen, accused the majority of authorizing "political chicanery" and ignoring a "full-scale assault on democracy in Kansas."
Justice Caleb Stegall wrote for the majority that the state constitution's guarantee of equal legal protection does not bar the Legislature from considering partisan factors when redrawing lines each decade to make districts as equal in population as possible.
Stegall also argued that unless the state Supreme Court set a "zero tolerance" standard on partisan gerrymandering, it has no clear standards for when it should be prohibited.
Federal judges — not the Kansas courts — have typically reviewed the state's congressional boundaries, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in 2019 that complaints about partisan gerrymandering are political issues and not for the federal courts to resolve.
The new Kansas map split Kansas City, Kansas, between two districts. The map also moved the city of Lawrence into the sprawling 1st District of central and western Kansas.
