The Arizona Supreme Court on Jan. 4 turned away appeals aimed at forcing the state to adopt new congressional and legislative district maps, apparently ending the challenge to the congressional map and ensuring that the current legislative map will be used again this year.

The Arizona Supreme Court without comment declined to consider multiple appeals to an Oct. 18 ruling by the Court of Appeals that upheld Arizona’s congressional map and told a trial judge to reconsider his ruling against the legislative map.

A lawyer for the state redistricting commission said the Supreme Court’s action should end the challenge to the congressional map and ensures that the legislative map will be used again in this year’s elections as that part of the case is sent back to a lower court for reconsideration.

Ready for 2006≠

Even if a new map ends up being drawn, it would require a months-long U.S. Justice Department review under the Voting Rights Act, commission attorney Lisa Hauser said.

“We do know that there really is no way that anything from here on out can affect the 2006 election,” Ms. Hauser said.

Hispanic Democrats who wanted a new legislative map with more districts where either major party has a chance of winning had urged the Supreme Court to review the ruling by the Court of Appeals.

The Navajo Nation also appealed. The tribe, Arizona’s largest, opposes part of the congressional map because the Independent Redistricting Commission put a tiny sliver of the tribe’s reservation and the Hopi Tribe in a separate congressional district from the bulk of the Navajos.

In its own appeal, Flagstaff asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Court of Appeals opinion. Flagstaff opposed being put in a legislative district dominated by the Navajo Reservation’s larger population.

Judith Dworkin, an attorney for the Navajos, agreed with Ms. Hauser that their challenge to the congressional map appeared over and that map would be used in the rest of the decade.

Lawyers for the Democrats and Flagstaff either did not immediately return calls Jan. 4 or had no immediate comment.

However, a lawyer for the Democrats had said in November that any possibility of using a new legislative map in 2006 depended on the Supreme Court’s overturning the Court of Appeals ruling and doing so quickly.

Near-identical versions of the current map were used in the 2002 and 2004 elections.

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