The legal fight against legislative gerrymandering in Illinois continues.

First, it was the partisans (Illinois Republicans) who filed a federal lawsuit challenging the validity of the state and federal legislative redistricting process overseen by Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative Democrats.

Now it's the good-government crowd at the League of Women Voters of Illinois who are challenging the Democrats' redistricting on constitutional grounds.

It'll be a big surprise if either lawsuit enjoys any success.

The right to draft gerrymandered political maps is viewed in Illinois as one of the spoils of victory. Democrats hold legislative majorities in the Illinois House and Senate and, historically, that status has given them the legal right to draft state and federal district boundary lines in a way guaranteed to elect the most Democrats.

Nonetheless, the League decided to go to court, invoking a novel theory to challenge the validity of the Democratic maps.

The lawsuit alleges that Quinn and Democratic legislative leaders violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by placing "Illinois residents into new state legislative and congressional districts based at least in part on the partisan viewpoints and opinions such residents are likely to express" at the polls.

In other words, the suit alleges Democrats tweaked district boundary lines to ensure their party continues to control the Illinois House and Senate as well as ensure that Democrats regain a lopsided majority of the state's congressional delegation.

Republicans filed a similar lawsuit earlier this summer. They alleged, among other things, that Democrats unconstitutionally denied Hispanic voters the opportunity to elect more Hispanic legislators.

The allegations are basically true, and that's a shame.

Illinois voters deserve the opportunity to cast ballots in competitive elections, and gerrymandered maps are drawn to prevent that kind of voter choice. That's why most state legislative races are either uncontested or lightly contested.

But a politicized map-drawing process has been approved by the federal courts, despite numerous challenges. Only in the most egregious circumstances have the federal courts intervened.

It doesn't have to be that way, of course. Some states, most notably Iowa, have a nonpartisan map-drawing process that ensures legislative district lines are drawn without political bias. But Illinois is among the states that adheres to the old, corrupt way of doing business. These lawsuits aren't likely to change that.