NYT:

With the midterm election cycle fast approaching, Republicans in the key states of Florida and Ohio have made critical progress in their push to add to their dominance on congressional maps by carving new districts that would be easier for G.O.P. candidates to win.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday vetoed congressional maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature and called for a special session to draw new maps in mid-April, a rare fracture between the Republican governor and state lawmakers. Mr. DeSantis had previously pledged to veto the maps and had pushed his own maps that would have given his party a stronger advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.

In Ohio, a new map of congressional districts that is gerrymandered to heavily favor Republicans appeared highly likely to be used in the midterm elections after the State Supreme Court indicated on Tuesday that it would not rule on a challenge to the map until after the May 3 primary election.

The Republican pressure comes as Democrats have fared better than expected in this year’s redistricting cycle. Democrats have drawn aggressive gerrymanders in states like New York, Oregon, Illinois and Maryland, while Republicans have sought to make their current seats safer in states like Texas and Georgia….

The Ohio Supreme Court has also rejected three successive Republican-drawn maps of districts for the State House and Senate as gerrymanders, once threatening to hold the Redistricting Commission in contempt for slow-walking the mapmaking process. The court appeared likely to do so again after the Redistricting Commission produced a fourth set of legislative maps late Monday that were almost identical to the last ones that the court struck down.

In adopting those maps, Republicans on the commission ignored the recommendations of two outside redistricting experts that the State Supreme Court had chosen to help with the process.

“The entire move was disrespectful of Ohio taxpayers, voters, the Supreme Court and the Ohio Constitution as a shameless power grab,” said Jen Miller, the executive director of the state chapter of the League of Women Voters, one of two groups that have challenged the maps. “But I don’t think they will have the last say.”

Ms. Miller and other experts said the Supreme Court could reopen contempt proceedings against the commission and order a fifth attempt to draw constitutional legislative maps.

The standoff over congressional and legislative maps has made a shambles of a redistricting process aimed at removing politics from mapmaking that Ohio voters resoundingly approved via constitutional amendments in 2015 and 2018.