The court, which voted 4-3 to strike down the map, ordered the Legislature to draw a new map that is not dictated by partisan considerations in the next 30 days.
The Ohio ruling is the first major legal victory of the once-a-decade redistricting cycle for Democrats. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Democrats in the case of partisan gerrymander, and they've been using state courts to roll back Republican-drawn district lines. Democrats said they would take the case to the Supreme Court in North Carolina, where the majority of justices were elected as Democrats.
The Ohio Republicans drew gerrymandered maps because they thought they could get away with it. The chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee said that they underestimated their preparedness and tenacity. It took every tool available to fight against the power grab, from grassroots engagement to years of planning and preparation, to arguing before an engaged state supreme court.
Friday's decision was the second time this week that the Ohio Supreme Court had knocked down Republican plans. On Tuesday, the justices invalidated state legislative districts that Republicans had redrawn without Democratic support. The decision came from the same 4-3 majority, with O'Connor joining the Democrats.
It was not clear if the court ruling would delay the May 3 primary in Ohio, which has an open Senate seat. Congressional candidates have until March 4 to file with state officials. If the state Legislature uses its entire 30-day window to create a new map, there would be less than three weeks for candidates to file.
The state Supreme Court gave the Legislature only 10 days to fix the maps, which is a month earlier than the congressional deadline.
Republicans in Ohio's state Legislature drew a map that would keep them in control of the state's congressional delegation despite a voter-approved initiative to crack down on partisan gerrymandering. The map was signed into law by the GOP governor, but it will not be in effect for the elections of 2022.
The districts currently held by Brown and Beatty in Cleveland and Columbus are heavily Democratic. The rest of the state was carved into 13 districts that were designed to give Republicans a chance to win seats in Cincinnati, Dayton and along the state's northern border with Michigan and the western half of Lake Erie.
Kaptur was the first Democrat to be elected in 1982. Her current district was won by Joe Biden in 2020 by 19 percentage points, but under the new map it would have become a district Donald Trump carried.
Kaptur said in a statement that the decision was a " resounding stand against unconstitutional districts that rob communities of fair representation". She said that it was time for the Ohio Legislature to create districts that were in line with Ohio's electoral competitiveness.
State Sen. Theresa Gavarone decried "activist judges legislating from the bench" in a statement issued from her congressional campaign.
The state of Ohio had a constitutional amendment approved by voters that made it harder for legislators to be bribed. The amendment limited legislators' ability to split the towns and forbade them from drawing a map that favors or disfavors a political party. It said that a map passed along partisan lines would only be in effect for four years, not the usual 10.
The amendment passed with a majority of voters in favor.
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