The Kansas Supreme Court has denied a petition from Attorney General Derek Schmidt to dismiss lawsuits over new congressional district maps.    The court ruled that the lawsuits can proceed at the District Court level.

Kansas Democrats and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas have filed lawsuits claiming the new map constitutes racial and partisan gerrymandering.   The Supreme Court said the case should be decided by the trial court first.

ACLU of Kansas executive director Micah Kubic said in a press release, “We’re obviously happy with this ruling.  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. “

Schmidt issued a statement later, saying “We had hoped to resolve the unsettled constitutional questions in these unprecedented cases more quickly and efficiently by presenting them directly to the Kansas Supreme Court. But today’s decision requires we resolve them the slower and potentially far more expensive way by starting in the trial courts, so that is what we will do.”