The state’s redistricting efforts have found favor with the Kansas Supreme Court.
The state high court reviewed the state maps for the Kansas Senate, Kansas House and Kansas State Board of Education in one case and the Congressional maps in another. It upheld both maps in separate decisions announced Wednesday, and in the case of the Congressional map, the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling and lifted a permanent injunction issued earlier this year.
The state maps passed with little fuss in the Legislature and was signed by Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. The Congressional map has been controversial because it shifted parts of Douglas and Wyandotte counties from the Third District into the Second, causing critics to say the maps were “racially gerrymandered” so minority votes would be curtailed.