Politico:

The midterm House map is nearly complete. Six months before Election Day, just a few straggling states are waiting to finalize their lines and a handful of court cases challenging new lines are outstanding.

Several of the legal cases are in large states with many districts and the chance to materially affect the national map — including New York, where the state’s high court heard an argument Tuesday to throw out Democrats’ gerrymander, and Florida, where GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new gerrymandered map has been challenged. But while more than a dozen states have ongoing redistricting litigation, operatives and legal experts say that in many places, the fast-approaching 2022 primaries leave little time for more court action this year.

Ohio, for example, has a live lawsuit — but also has its congressional primary on May 3. The challenge against New York Democrats’ map is also running up against the June primary schedule. And the Supreme Court previously pushed racial gerrymandering claims about new maps into the next election cycle, staying a lower court order that had struck down Alabama’s map and ordered a redraw for 2022, saying it was too close to the election.

The long-term legal activity means that while both parties are preparing to fight on the House battlefield drawn for this year, they are also getting ready for the conflict over political lines to extend far beyond the normal redistricting period that follows each decennial Census — with the potential to change the House map significantly over the next decade.