Dem
51
GOP
49
On Friday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out the highly gerrymandered legislative maps drawn by the Republican-controlled state legislature. The Court ruled that many of the districts were unconstitutional because they were not contiguous. Democrats had argued that the state Constitution calls for contiguous districts and many of the ones in the current maps consisted of two disjoint areas that are not connected, not even by the median strip on a divided highway.
The Court invited the legislature to draw new maps. However, Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) has veto power over the maps. The chance that the legislature will draw maps that Evers will sign is somewhere between nil and zero. The Court also invited all concerned parties to submit maps and arguments as to why their map is fair. The Court will then hire consultants to evaluate them. If none of them are acceptable, the Court is likely to hire a special master to draw new maps that meet can pass constitutional muster.
The ruling was 4-3, with newly elected justice Janet Protasiewicz in the majority. The Court also ruled that the current maps cannot be used in 2024, thus putting a lot of pressure on everyone. Until the districts are set, candidates can't file and the entire election process is on hold, except for statewide offices. If the new maps are fair and the parties have equal chances at winning each chamber of the state legislature, a Democratic trifecta in 2024 is conceivable. That will result in a flurry of laws enacted by Republicans in the past decade being repealed. This could be a truly seismic event.
Now that Democrats have a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, it is expected that many of the other shenanigans pulled by the Republicans in past years will be ruled unconstitutional.
Wisconsin isn't the only state where the state Supreme Court threw out some maps. In Michigan on Thursday, the state Supreme Court ordered the boundaries of 13 Detroit-area legislative districts to be redrawn. The Court said that were illegally racially gerrymandered. About 80% of Detroit residents are Black but the maps had districts in which the percentage of Black voters in each district varied from 19% to 45%. The Court ruled that this was a blatant racial gerrymander and illegal.
The Court ruled that all the disputants are to return in January to determine how to fix the problem. (V)