photo by: Kansas Legislative Research Department via AP

This image shows the "Ad Astra 2" congressional redistricting plan for Kansas drafted by the Kansas Legislative Research Department for Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature. The blue represents the new 1st Congressional District, and it takes in the city of Lawrence at its far eastern edge.

Four Douglas County residents filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that a recently passed congressional redistricting plan is “intentional partisan political gerrymandering” and violates the Kansas Constitution.

In the suit, which was filed in Douglas County District Court, the plaintiffs call for the Ad Astra 2 redistricting plan to be declared unconstitutional, and they say the Legislature should be ordered to pass a new plan “that does not use partisan political gerrymandering to dilute the votes of Douglas County voters.”

The suit was filed by Susan Frick, Lauren Sullivan, Darrell Lea and Susan Spring Schiffelbein; all of them live in Douglas County, and Frick and Lea reside in Lawrence. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab are named as defendants.

In early February, the Kansas House overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the Ad Astra 2 map, which divides Douglas County between two congressional districts. Specifically, it splits Lawrence off from the 2nd District and places the city in the state’s historically rural 1st District. The rest of the county remains in the 2nd District.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue that Republicans in the Legislature deliberately carved out the county’s urban area, making Democratic, third-party and independent votes in Douglas County a “practical nullity.” The suit also alleges that the Legislature violated its own redistricting guidelines and traditional redistricting principles. The plaintiffs want the Legislature to be forced to draw up a new plan that addresses those issues, “including but not limited to adopting a redistricting plan that places the whole of Douglas County in one congressional district and not the First District.”

The plaintiffs are also asking to expedite court proceedings so a congressional district map can be adopted and implemented prior to the June 1 candidate filing deadline for the August 2022 primary election.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that complaints of partisan gerrymandering are political issues and not for federal courts to resolve. But Tuesday’s lawsuit and others filed in state courts against the new maps are trying to circumvent that by alleging that partisan gerrymandering violates the Kansas Constitution. The plaintiffs in Tuesday’s suit specifically claim that the map goes against the Kansas Constitution’s guarantees of equal and inalienable natural rights.