Clevelandurbannews.com , CLEVELAND, Ohio- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (pictured) on Monday filed a notice of appeal and asked a federal court to block implementation of a ruling by a three- judge panel issued Friday that deemed Ohio's current congressional map unconstitutional and ordered the state legislature to redraw it by June 14, a win for Democrats who say the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly arbitrarily drew the current electoral map to favor Republican candidates over Democrats for elections in Ohio to congress.

The motion filed by Yost in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio petitions the court to stay the case or to block the ruling from going forward pending the outcome of the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as such election cases of this type skip the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and go directly to the Supreme Court

A Republican who won election last November over Democrat Steve Dettelbach, a former district attorney for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland, Yost seems to dismiss the fact that the federal court court ruled the map unconstitutional and says the ruling, in his view, creates an inconvenience.

“If this Court’s ruling were to be affirmed, the voters of Ohio will have to vote under at least three different congressional district maps in three consecutive general elections,”  says Yost in his motion for a stay at the trial court level.

He also argues, among other claims, that Ohio voters, last May, approved Issue 1, a constitutional amendment carved via bi-partisan cooperation and aimed at fairer congressional districts, and that Friday's decision conflicts with that voter approved initiative, an initiative now in limbo, at best.

Some Democratic state lawmakers say the constitutional amendment does not substitute for the current unconstitutional congressional map and that they supported the ballot initiative because it was their only choice at the time, and was better than nothing at all.

The decision on Ohio's electoral map for congress issued Friday, which follows a series of similar rulings in other states across the country, including neighboring Michigan, also precludes election officials from holding elections under the current map, which yielded a 12-4 bi-partisan advantage for Republicans from Ohio in congress.

Brought by the League of Women Voters and ACLU as a plaintiffs, among others, the gerrymandering lawsuit against John Kasich, a term-limited Republican governor who left office in January, former secretary of state Jon Husted, now the lieutenant governor, and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, follows the voter approved Issue 1.

Following a reduction in population per the 2010 U.S. Census report, Ohio went from 18 congressional seats to 16.

The four Democratic congress persons from Ohio are Reps Marcia Fudge, whose 11th congressional district includes Cleveland, Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the longest serving woman in Congress and whose 9th congressional district extends to Cleveland, Joyce Beatty of Columbus, and Rep Tim Ryan, a Youngstown area Democrat and presidential candidate.

Beatty and Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and prior national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.,are Black and the only Blacks in congress from Ohio.

The decisions for Ohio and Michigan could both be put on hold until the nation's high court rules on gerrymandering cases before it relative to congressional maps in Maryland and North Carolina, such decision expected later this year, one that legal pundits say will, without a doubt, impact Friday's federal court decision as to the pivotal state of Ohio.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.