The Maine law court has approved an extension for the bipartisan commission that's drawing new congressional and legislative districts.
The redistricting commission, which meets every 10 years to redraw maps in conjunction with the release of the U.S. Census, petitioned the court last month for a new deadline.
Delays in the federal government's release of granular population data used to draw the maps made it impossible for the commission to meet its constitutional deadline.
In granting the extension, the law court said those deadlines should not prevail over the reapportionment process that not only determines constituencies for officials elected to the legislature and Congress, but also the electoral battlegrounds.
The court granted the commission 45 days after the receipt of the federal data, which are expected in August, to complete its proposal to the Legislature.
Had it not approved the extension, the court would have been responsible for drawing those maps.
