Democrats, ACLU sue over new Kansas congressional districts
By JOHN HANNA and ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials face two lawsuits over a Republican redistricting law. The lawsuits filed Monday challenge a map that costs the state’s only Democrat in Congress some of the territory in her Kansas City-area district that she carries by wide margins in elections. A team of attorneys led by prominent Democratic attorney Marc Elias’ firm filed a lawsuit in Wyandotte County District Court in the Kansas City area. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed another shortly afterward. The lawsuits argue that the map enacted last week is unacceptable because it splits Kansas City, Kansas, and decreases the number of minority voters in U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids’ district. Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has promised a vigorous defense of the new law.