CASE SUMMARY
On February 14, 2022, a group of Kansas voters and a Kansas non-profit filed a lawsuit against Kansas’s Secretary of State and the Wyandotte County Election Commissioner challenging the state’s enacted congressional redistricting plan as a pro-Republican partisan gerrymander in violation of the Kansas Constitution’s Right to Suffrage and Equal Rights, Political Power, Free Speech, and Free Assembly Clauses. Plaintiffs also alleged the plan was racially discriminatory against minority voters in violation of the state constitution’s Equal Rights and Political Power Clauses. They sought a judicial declaration the plan violated the Kansas Constitution, an injunction barring the plan from use in the 2022 elections, and a court order requiring the state to enact a new, lawful plan or for the court to adopt its own if the state failed to do so.
- On April 25, 2022, the Wyandotte County District Court held partisan gerrymandering was justiciable under the Kansas Constitution and struck down the congressional plan as partisan gerrymandered and diluting minority voting strength in violation of the provisions cited in the complaint. The court also rejected the state’s argument that the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause barred state court review of congressional redistricting plans for compliance with a state’s constitution. It enjoined the plan from future use and ordered the Legislature to enact a remedial plan in accordance with its opinion. Defendants appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court the same day.
- On May 18, 2022, the Kansas Supreme Court reversed and upheld the congressional plan as constitutional. The Court released its full opinion on June 21, explaining that partisan gerrymandering challenges were nonjusticiable political questions because the Kansas Constitution and state law provided no judicially manageable standards for evaluating them. It also adopted the U.S. Supreme Court’s standard for evaluating minority vote dilution claims under the U.S. Constitution as applicable to such claims under the Kansas Constitution and found the plaintiffs failed to establish the necessary elements for such a claim here.
Related Case: Alonzo v. Schwab
CASE LIBRARY
Kansas District Court, Wyandotte County - No. 2022-CV-89
- Petition for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief - 2/14/22
- Opinion - 4/25/22
- Notice of Appeal - 4/25/22
Kansas Supreme Court - No. 125092
- Docketing Statement - 4/26/22
- Motion to Expedite - 4/26/22
- Motion Regarding Record on Appeal - 4/26/22
- Rivera and Alonzo Plaintiffs-Appellees' Joint Response to Defendants-Appellants' Motion Regarding Record on Appeal - 4/27/22
- Rivera and Alonzo Plaintiffs-Appellees' Joint Response to Defendants-Appellants' Motion to Expedite - 4/27/22
- Show Cause Order - 4/28/22
- Scheduling Order - 4/28/22
- Order Regarding Record on Appeal - 4/29/22
- Joint Appendix - 5/2/22
- Response to Show Cause Order - 5/2/22
- Brief of Appellants - 5/2/22
- Rivera and Alonzo Plaintiffs-Appellees' Joint Notice of Intent Not to File a Response to Show Cause Order - 5/3/22
- Response of Appellees' Susan Frick, et al., to Show Cause Order - 5/3/22
- Appellee Jamie Shew's Notice of Intent Not to File a Response to Show Cause Order - 5/4/22
- Application to File a Brief Amicus Curiae by Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council - 5/5/22
- Application for Leave to File Amicus Brief by Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Inc. - 5/5/22
- Plaintiffs-Appellees' Memorandum in Opposition to the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council's Motion to File a Brief Amicus Curiae - 5/9/22
- Brief of Appellees Susan Frick, et al. - 5/9/22
- Brief of Rivera and Alonzo Plaintiff-Appellees - 5/9/22
- Order - 5/10/22
- Oral Argument Scheduling Order - 5/10/22
- Order Granting Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council's Motion to File Amicus Brief - 5/10/22
- Order Granting Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Inc.'s Motion to File Amicus Brief - 5/10/22
- Brief of Amicus Curiae Legislative Coordinating Council in Support of Defendants-Appellants - 5/10/22
- Brief of Amicus Curiae Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Inc. in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees - 5/10/22
- Reply to Brief of Amicus Curiae Legislative Coordinating Council by Appellees Susan Frick, et al. - 5/12/22
- Rivera and Alonzo Plaintiffs-Appellees' Memorandum in Opposition to the Kansas Legislative Coordinating Council's Brief Amicus Curiae - 5/12/22
- Response to Legislative Coordinating Council's Brief of Amicus Curiae - 5/12/22
- Reply Brief of Appellants - 5/12/22
- Plaintiffs-Appellees Joint Statement Regarding Oral Argument - 5/13/22
- Reply to Brief of Amicus Curiae Legislative Coordinating Council by Appellees Susan Frick, et al. - 5/13/22
- Order - 5/18/22
- Opinion - 6/21/22
- Alonzo and Rivera Plaintiffs-Appellees' Motion for Rehearing - 7/12/22
- Alonzo and Rivera Plaintiffs-Appellees' Reply in Support of Motion for Rehearing - 8/16/22
- Order Denying Motion for Rehearing - 8/26/22