Ohio’s Redistricting Fiasco Highlights Fragility of the Rule of Law Underpinning Our Democracy

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-14-2022

Publication Title

Cleveland Plain Dealer / cleveland.com

Keywords

Ohio Supreme Court, Ohio Redistricting Commission, gerrymandering

Abstract

In the first five months of 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled five times that proposals of the Ohio Redistricting Commission for the decennial redistricting of the Ohio General Assembly violated the Ohio Constitution. The commission, enabled by the remarkable intervention of a three-judge federal district court panel, ignored each of the court’s decisions. As a result, Ohio voters on Nov. 8 will elect state legislators from districts distorted by partisan gerrymandering.

All Ohioans should be concerned over such a brazen violation of a basic democratic principle –– the rule of law. Why did four lawyers in the commission majority and the Ohio secretary of state reject authoritative judicial decisions?

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