The Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday ruled a map of the state House of Representatives and congressional districts, passed by the GOP-led legislature in 2022, was constitutional, delivering a blow to Democrats.
“An expectation that apportionment will be free of partisan considerations would thus not only be unrealistic, but also inconsistent with our Constitution’s assignment of responsibility for that process to an elected political body,” the majority opinion said, written by Justice Angela McCormick Bisig in the 78-page ruling with multiple dissents.
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Democrats filed a lawsuit to redraw the Kentucky House and the state’s six congressional districts enacted by the Republican-led legislature last year, alleging numerous counties were improperly split and constituted constitutional violations. Before the Democratic Party’s lawsuit, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) vetoed the redistricting plan, but that was overruled by state Republicans, which prompted Democrats to file a challenge.
The judges agreed with a lower court’s ruling that both sets of maps are partisan gerrymanders, but neither violates the state’s constitution.
“The alleged partisanship in the crafting of the Apportionment Plans does not rise to the level of a clear, flagrant, or unwarranted deviation from constitutional limitations or a threat to our democratic form of government. Nor do we perceive in the Apportionment Plans any violation of the constitutional guarantees of free and fair elections, equal protection, freedom of speech and assembly, or freedom from arbitrary government action,” Bisig wrote.
Following the ruling from Kentucky’s highest court, Beshear said a constitutional amendment on restricting should be pursued.
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“That’s not the way that the government should operate, and if it takes a constitutional amendment, I think we should pursue one,” Beshear said during his weekly press conference Thursday afternoon while adding he has yet to read the opinion in full.
“The ruling is what it is, and we’ll have to move forward. But we have got to get to a point where redistricting is about the people and not the politics, and trying to find a vehicle to do that,” Beshear said while suggesting a nonpartisan commission should oversee redistricting, which would require an amendment to pass through the state legislature.
