The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, who are elected at large by the voters of Ohio for six-year terms. The court has a total of 1,550 other employees. Since 2004, the court has met in the Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center on the east bank of the Scioto River in Downtown Columbus. Prior to 2004, the court met in the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower and earlier in the Judiciary Annex of the Ohio Statehouse.
Richard Patrick DeWine is an American jurist who has served as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court since 2017. He served as a justice of the 1st district of the Ohio District Courts of Appeals from 2013 to 2017 and as a politician in Hamilton County, Ohio. He is the son of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.
North Carolina is currently divided into 14 congressional districts, each represented by a member of the United States House of Representatives. After the 2000 census, the number of North Carolina's seats was increased from 12 to 13 due to the state's increase in population. In the 2022 elections, per the 2020 United States census, North Carolina gained one new congressional seat for a total of 14.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin.
Ohio is divided into 15 congressional districts, each represented by a member of the United States House of Representatives. After the 2010 census, Ohio, which up until then had 18 districts, lost two House seats due to slow population growth compared to the national average, and a new map was signed into law on September 26, 2011. Starting in the 2022 midterms, per the 2020 United States census, Ohio lost its 16th congressional seat, ending up with its current 15 districts.
Ohio's 3rd congressional district is located entirely in Franklin County and includes most of the city of Columbus. The current district lines were drawn in 2022, following the redistricting based on the 2020 census. It is currently represented by Democrat Joyce Beatty.
Ohio's 4th congressional district spans sections of the central part of the state. It is currently represented by Republican Jim Jordan, the current chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who has represented the district since 2007.
League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399 (2006), is a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court ruled that only District 23 of the 2003 Texas redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act. The Court refused to throw out the entire plan, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to state a sufficient claim of partisan gerrymandering.
Matt Huffman is an American politician serving as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 78th district since 2025, while concurrently serving as Speaker of the House as a Republican. The district includes all of Allen County and a portion of northern Auglaize County.
Yvette McGee Brown became the first African-American female justice on the Ohio Supreme Court when she took office on January 1, 2011. She was the founding president of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and was a judge of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas for nine years.
Eric S. Brown is the former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. He was appointed by Governor Ted Strickland on May 3, 2010, following the death of Chief Justice Thomas Moyer on April 2, 2010. Brown was the first Jewish Chief Justice in Ohio history.
Sharon Lee Kennedy is an American jurist who has served as chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court since 2023. She was first elected to the court as an associate justice in 2012 after serving as a judge of the Butler County Court of Common Pleas from 1999 to 2012.
Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. The term "gerrymandering" was coined after a review of Massachusetts's redistricting maps of 1812 set by Governor Elbridge Gerry noted that one of the districts looked like a mythical salamander.
Brad Schimel is an American lawyer, judge, and Republican politician. He was the 44th attorney general of Wisconsin, serving from 2015 to 2019. He was defeated seeking re-election in 2018, and was subsequently appointed a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Waukesha County, by Governor Scott Walker. Schimel is seeking election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the 2025 Spring election. He also previously served as district attorney of Waukesha County.
The 2020 United States redistricting cycle is in progress following the completion of the 2020 United States census. In all fifty states, various bodies are re-drawing state legislative districts. States that are apportioned more than one seat in the United States House of Representatives are also drawing new districts for that legislative body.
Gill v. Whitford, 585 U.S. 48 (2018), was a United States Supreme Court case involving the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. Other forms of gerrymandering based on racial or ethnic grounds had been deemed unconstitutional, and while the Supreme Court had identified that extreme partisan gerrymandering could also be unconstitutional, the Court had not agreed on how this could be defined, leaving the question to lower courts to decide. That issue was later resolved in Rucho v. Common Cause, in which the Court decided that partisan gerrymanders presented a nonjusticiable political question.
The 2022 Ohio general elections took place on November 8, 2022, throughout the US state of Ohio.
The independent state legislature theory or independent state legislature doctrine (ISL) is a judicially rejected legal theory that posits that the Constitution of the United States delegates authority to regulate federal elections within a state to that state's elected lawmakers without any checks and balances from state constitutions, state courts, governors, ballot initiatives, or other bodies with legislative power. In June 2023, in the case Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not give state legislatures sole power over elections and rejected the ISL.
Redistricting in Ohio is the process by which boundaries are redrawn for federal congressional and state legislative districts. It has historically been highly controversial. Critics have accused legislators of attempting to protect themselves from competition by gerrymandering districts.
The 2024 Ohio redistricting commission initiative was a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment, Issue 1 on the ballot, that was defeated 53.7% to 46.3% in the November 2024 election. If passed, the amendment would have replaced the existing politician-led Ohio Redistricting Commission with a 15-member commission of Ohio citizens selected from a pool by a panel of retired judges, to redraw congressional and legislative districts.
