A federal court challenge to state legislative districts in light of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Feb. 7, 2022, decision in League of Women Voters of Ohio v. Ohio Redistricting Comm’n.  That state decision invalidated as a partisan gerrymander the state commission’s second attempt at drawing state legislative maps; plaintiffs claimed that this left in place maps from the 2010 cycle that were malapportioned after the 2020 census.

On Feb. 24, 2022, the state commission adopted a third state legislative plan, struck once more as a partisan gerrymander by the Ohio Supreme Court on Mar. 16, 2022.  With the filing deadline for legislative primaries already past, the federal plaintiffs sought to have the federal court reinstate that Feb. 24 plan.  And several African-American voters (the Simon intervenors) intervened, focusing on the Youngstown area, to challenge the commission’s process for state legislative districts under the Voting Rights Act, as well as the process to draw a remedial congressional map after the original map had been struck by the state Supreme Court in Adams v. DeWine and League of Women Voters of Ohio v. DeWine.

On Mar. 29, 2022, the state commission adopted a fourth state legislative plan, struck once more as a partisan gerrymander by the Ohio Supreme Court on Apr. 14, 2022.

On Apr. 20, 2022, the three-judge federal court determined that because the Ohio Secretary of State had already begun implementing the third (Feb. 24) state legislative map, that map would govern 2022 elections (with the primary moved to Aug. 2) absent state implementation of a valid map or alternative process by May 28.  On May 27, the three-judge federal court confirmed that order.  All other relief with respect to the 2022 cycle was denied.  The case remains open.