A federal appeals court has found that Washington’s legislative map for a district in the Yakima Valley will stay in place after it was redrawn and adopted by a U.S. District Court last year.

In the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling issued Wednesday by Judge M. Margaret McKeown, the court said it did not find evidence of racial discrimination or racial gerrymandering in the 14th legislative district nestled in Central Washington, which would have constituted a violation of the federal Equal Protection Clause.

The ruling comes after a long legal battle that first began in 2022, after several Latino voters challenged the maps for violating the federal Voting Rights Act in the legislative district. They contended that maps drawn by the state’s Redistricting Commission, which is split

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