The Arizona State Legislature has filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) as the governing body seeks to regain authority to draw the state’s political boundaries.

The combined chambers of the legislature filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Arizona on June 7, asking the three-judge panel to restore Arizona’s legislative control over the redistricting process that occurs following every 10-year census.

The suit isn’t disputing whether the newly instituted congressional and legislative district maps were drawn appropriately; rather it claims the commission didn’t have the authority to draw them in the first place.

“The (U.S.) Constitution entrusts the regulation of federal elections, including the drawing of congressional districts, solely to the legislatures of the states,” said House Speaker Andy Tobin (R-Dewey). “Today, the legislature is asking the federal courts to bring the constitutional redistricting process back to Arizona’s elected representatives.”

IRC attorneys argue that Arizona voters granted the authority to the commission to take charge of congressional district mapping when Proposition 106 was passed in 2000. The first set of maps the IRC prepared in 2002 were unchallenged, but the set prepared in 2011 and approved in 2012 have been the source of several legal actions, including a lawsuit still pending in state and federal courts challenging what Republican legislature plaintiffs termed the “unconstitutional and partisan” legislative and congressional district maps.

Still, the new legislative and congressional boundaries are being honored by the political hopefuls who have submitted packets to the Secretary of State’s office indicating their intentions to run for office within the newly redrawn districts.

The legislature hopes that the powers will be restored following the 2012 congressional elections.

Commission attorneys say the authority granted the IRC by voters in 2000 was appropriately conveyed, based on a 1916 U.S. Supreme Court case that said a state’s legislative authority is held not only by its elected legislature, but also by the people, who can address issues through referendum.

Tobin has said he disagrees with the interpretation of the 1916 case, which he believes meant an elected legislature could transfer authority to an independent body, should it choose to do so.

Senate President Steve Pierce (R-Prescott), who supports the lawsuit, added, “In 2000, Proposition 106 rode a wave of special interest money to take congressional redistricting away from the people’s elected representatives and give it to an unelected and unaccountable commission. The Founders would never have stood for this. It’s time to return to the plain command of the United States Constitution.”

Tobin is hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually take up the question to settle the dispute for all states.