Court Upholds Democratic-Drawn Congressional Map

A federal court has upheld a new congressional map drawn by Illinois Democrats.

The map preserves existing Democratic-leaning districts and creates new ones. It also forces several Republican incumbents to run against each other in primaries.

Republicans had sued to overturn the map, claiming that Democrats drew only one Hispanic district when more were needed because of population growth. A panel of three judges, including two Indiana Republicans, disagreed on Thursday.

In their ruling, the judges said that they agreed that the crafting of the adopted map was a "blatant political move to increase the number of Democratic congressional seats'' but that it wasn't illegal.

The map was drawn by Democrats who control the legislature and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.

The new congressional map was drawn with no input from Illinois Republicans. It forces most GOP congressmen in the state into unfamiliar territory or races against each other.