News & Commentary

At issue: A map known as Ad Astra 2 splits the Kansas City metro area along Interstate 70, separating the heavily Democratic northern part of Wyandotte County from Johnson County and the 3rd District, and places Lawrence into the same 1st District as rural counties that border Colorado.

Jowei Chen, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, had a computer draw 1,000 versions of Kansas congressional maps, using non-partisan and traditional guidelines. The map Kansas lawmakers passed this year had more Republican districts than 98.8% of them.

Policy differences are the point in politics. Politics helps us sort out policy differences.

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday rejected Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s request to dismiss lawsuits filed in Wyandotte and Douglas counties over redrawn congressional districts. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Loud Light filed separate lawsuits to stop the gerrymandered map.

“We’re obviously happy with this ruling,” said ACLU of Kansas Executive Director Micah Kubic. “Still, there’s a lot of work yet ahead of us in defending democracy and protecting the rights of Kansans, especially the voters of Wyandotte County, Johnson County, and Lawrence.”

The census defines a prisoner’s home address as the prison they are held at, but there is some effort to change that.

Democrats, a civil rights group and a national elections watchdog filed two lawsuits Monday against Kansas officials over a Republican redistricting law 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…

The Kansas Debt Free Justice Coalition, of which the ACLU of Kansas is a member, testified to advocate for the elimination of fines and fees in the juvenile justice system.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Loud Light filed two separate lawsuits Monday arguing the congressional map endorsed by a GOP supermajority in the Legislature intentionally violates constitutional rights of Democrats and communities of color.