The U.S. Supreme Court announced on March 27 that it had denied certiorari in Alonzo v. Schwab, a lawsuit regarding Kansas’ congressional district boundaries. The Court did not release the vote results on the matter, and there were no published dissents to the decision. The Supreme Court’s action closes the case, which was the state’s only active redistricting litigation. According to Devan Cole of CNN, “The court’s decision to not hear the case means that the newly redrawn map will remain in play.”
On Nov. 23, 2022, the plaintiffs in Alonzo v. Schwab filed a petition asking SCOTUS to hear the case, which challenged the Kansas Supreme Court’s May 2022 decision upholding the state’s congressional redistricting plan. The petitioners argued that the Kansas Supreme Court erroneously ruled “that intentional racial discrimination in redistricting is unconstitutional only if it prevents the formation of a majority-minority district.”
On June 21, 2022, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned a state district court’s decision finding the state’s congressional district boundaries were unconstitutional. The state supreme court’s order said, “on the record before us, plaintiffs have failed to satisfy their burden to meet the legal elements required for a showing of unlawful racial gerrymandering or unlawful race-based vote dilution.”
