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BREAKING: Three-judge federal court unanimously rules that Ohio congressional map is unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Opinion here: big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2… #fairmaps 1/
The court has given Ohio a hard deadline of June 14 to enact a new congressional map, which the court then will review. #fairmaps 2/ 
If the state fails to enact a new map, the court will put in place a new map for the 2020 election and has asked to parties to propose special masters by June 3. #fairmaps 3/
The court’s unanimous opinion striking down the Ohio congressional map is 300 pages long, but the court helpfully provides a shorter summary at the start of the opinion 👇#fairmaps 4/
Starting on page 7 of the opinion, the court also gives a detailed breakdown of how the Ohio congressional map was draw in secret in a hotel suite in Columbus with help of national political operatives. #fairmaps 5/
And if you like maps, the Ohio partisan gerrymandering opinion has lots of them - with district by district explanations of how the 2011 gerrymander went down. #fairmaps 6/
On the key question of what role social science plays, the court follows the lead of the court in the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case - noting starting on page 149 that social science is just one instrument in courts’ evidentiary toolkit. #fairmaps 7/
The Ohio partisan gerrymandering decision is yet another example of lower courts finding it not at all hard to adjudicate partisan gerrymandering claims - despite the angst SCOTUS seems to have. #fairmaps 8/
On the merits, the court ruled for the plaintiffs in the Ohio partisan gerrymandering decision on all of their legal claims - striking down the map on 1st Amendment, 14th Amendment, and Article I grounds. #fairmaps 9/
As to what comes next, it’s all but certain that Ohio will ask SCOTUS to halt the map redrawing process pending a decision in the NC/MD cases - as well as their own appeal. #fairmaps 10/
So, in short, stay tuned for more maneuvering. But, in the mean time, celebrate a big, big win for Ohio voters. #fairmaps 11/
With today’s ruling in the Ohio partisan gerrymandering case - and assuming changes actually get made to the NC, MI & OH maps (looking at you SCOTUS) - all of the worst of this decade’s congressional maps will have seen improvements as a result of litigation. #fairmaps 12/
In fact, it’s possible that only the Texas congressional map - which saw some limited court-ordered modifications in 2012 - will end the decade with high rates of partisan bias. #fairmaps 13/
