U.S. Supreme Court tosses challenge to Republican-drawn Ohio congressional maps

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a challenge to Republican-drawn congressional districts in Ohio that Democrats said were drawn to unlawfully diminish their political clout, a move that follows a major ruling by the justices in June that foreclosed such lawsuits. The court's action in the case involving a practice known as partisan gerrymandering means that 16 U.S. House of Representatives districts will no longer be reconfigured, as a three-judge panel had ordered in May.

The Supreme Court had put the panel's ruling on hold ahead of its rulings, issued the next month, in two major gerrymandering cases from Maryland and North Carolina. The justices in June dealt a major blow to election reformers by saying in its June 27 ruling that federal courts have no role to play in reining in electoral map manipulation by politicians aimed at entrenching one party in power.

The ruling gave the Ohio challengers little option but to concede defeat.