The U.S. Supreme Court won't review a congressional redistricting law enacted by the Kansas Legislature that opponents claimed to be gerrymandering.
The nation's highest court said Monday without explanation that it won't hear an appeal of a Kansas Supreme Court ruling from May 2022 that partisan gerrymandering does not violate the state constitution. Eleven voters had challenged the redistricting law.
Detractors claimed, the map had appeared to hurt the chances of reelection last year for the only Democrat in the state's congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, in her Kansas City-area district. But Davids still won her race in November by 12 percentage points.
The law also moved the northeastern Kansas city of Lawrence into a district with western Kansas.
The Legislature must redraw political boundaries at least once every 10 years to ensure that districts are as equal in population as possible. The Kansas Supreme Court split 4-3 on whether the state constitution allows partisan gerrymandering.
The Kansas court's majority said the state constitution doesn't bar lawmakers from considering partisan factors in drafting their maps. It added that state courts would have no clear standard for what constitutes improper gerrymandering absent a "zero tolerance" standard.
