The Republican-controlled Legislature drove Kansas’ post-2020 congressional redistricting, as state law assigns primary map-drawing authority to lawmakers subject to gubernatorial veto. After the Kansas Advisory Committee on Redistricting held hearings and issued recommendations, the Legislature enacted a new congressional plan in February 2022 through Senate Bill 355, overriding a veto by Gov. Laura Kelly. The map, which substantially reconfigured the Kansas City area's 3rd Congressional District, immediately drew legal challenges. Two lawsuits, Rivera v. Schwab and Alonzo v. Schwab, were filed in Wyandotte County District Court alleging violations of the Kansas Constitution, including claims of partisan and racial gerrymandering. In April 2022, the district court struck down the map, but the Kansas Supreme Court reversed that ruling in May 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court later declined to review the case, leaving the Legislature’s map in effect for elections beginning in 2022.

The post-2020 state legislative redistricting process in Kansas followed a separate but constitutionally structured path that includes mandatory judicial review. Lawmakers enacted new state House and Senate maps in April 2022 through Substitute for Senate Bill 563, which Gov. Kelly signed into law. Unlike congressional redistricting, Kansas law requires the attorney general to petition the Kansas Supreme Court to determine the validity of legislative maps. That review occurred shortly after enactment, with oral arguments held in May 2022. In June 2022, the Kansas Supreme Court approved the legislative plans, finding that they complied with constitutional and statutory requirements.

last updated: Jan. 2026