Wisconsin judges order new legislative maps
The Wisconsin Supreme Court said Friday that the state’s heavily gerrymandered legislative plans that favor Republicans are unconstitutional. It ordered new maps before the 2024 election in a ruling that could trigger a seismic political shift in a crucial presidential swing state.
Judge Jill J. Karofsky, writing for the majority, said Wisconsin’s current maps violate a requirement in the state constitution “that Wisconsin legislative districts be composed of physically contiguous territory.”
“Given the language of the Constitution, the question before us is clear,” she wrote. “If legislative districts are composed of separate, detached parts, are they composed of ‘contiguous territory’? We conclude that this is not the case.”
The decision was widely expected from a court that went to a four-to-three liberal majority this year after the most expensive judicial elections in American history. The winner of that election, Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a former Milwaukee County judge, was openly critical of the current legislative plans, calling them “rigged” and “dishonest” during her campaign.
One day after Judge Protasiewicz was sworn in to the court in August, a coalition of voting rights groups and law firms petitioned the state Supreme Court to hear a redistricting case.
The petition, filed on behalf of 19 Wisconsin voters, sought to have new maps drawn by March, as well as redrawing every Assembly and Senate seat and holding elections for all of them in 2024.
Democrats will now have a chance to make gains in a legislature that is currently heavily tilted toward favoring Republicans. In a state with an electorate roughly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, Republicans have a 64-35 majority in the General Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the Senate. Democratic Governor Tony Evers was re-elected for a second term in 2022 and will remain so until at least 2026.
Earlier this year, Robin Vos, the Republican Speaker of the State Assembly, had threatened to impeach Judge Protasiewicz over her statements calling the maps “forged,” but he has since backed away from those comments. He has Thursday called An impeachment procedure against Justice is ‘super unlikely’.
The court heard oral arguments in the case in November, as bystanders gathered in a state Capitol courtroom and listened to arguments about the fairness of the cards.
Conservatives on the court accused Democrats of waiting to advance their claim that the maps violate the state constitution until they had secured a liberal majority on the court.
“Everyone knows the reason we’re here is because there’s been a change in the composition of the court,” Judge Rebecca Bradley, a conservative, said as she interrupted a lawyer representing Democratic voters.
Lawyers representing Republicans said Democrats had not made claims of unfairness over non-contiguous districts in the past. One of the attorneys, Taylor Meehan, said the Democrats’ claims were “meritless.”
But Mark Gaber, an attorney representing Democrats, said the state’s bizarrely distorted maps had disenfranchised voters.
“Wisconsin is the only state that has something that looks something like this,” Mr. Gaber said of the current district boundaries, adding, “This is shocking people across the country who are looking at this map.”