Wisconsin Supreme Court reviewing options for state’s legislative boundaries

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court is reviewing seven different options for proposed changes to the state’s legislative boundaries in the wake of a lawsuit aiming to “unrig” the state’s legislative districts.

The court gave the public a deadline of Jan. 12 to submit proposed maps. Both Republicans and Democrats, attorneys, professors, and law firms submitted their plans to make the state’s legislative districts more competitive.

According to court documents obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, university professors from California to Pennsylvania weighed in.

As previously reported, two consultants hired to analyze new legislative boundary lines in Wisconsin after the state’s Supreme Court tossed the current Republican-drawn maps will be paid up to $100,000 each in taxpayer money under terms of their contracts made public earlier this month.

Several of the submitted maps are now public, including, Gov. Tony Evers, Senate Democrats, and Plaintifs’ represented by Law Forward, Stafford Rosenbaum, the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, Campaign Legal Center, and Arnold & Porter. Click here to view proposed legislative maps (Senate, Assembly).

Wisconsin’s top court has until the Ides of March to review competing legislative maps.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, the 4-3 liberal majority Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered new legislative maps Dec. 22, just months before the 2024 presidential election, sparking praise from Democrats and sharp criticism from the dissent and Republicans.

Citing a Wisconsin Law Journal article, Supreme Court Justice Ziegler wrote in her dissent, “this deal was sealed on election night.”

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, the tug of war between liberals and conservatives over control of state legislative seats became a central topic of discussion during the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Then-Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewicz began her public comments against the current legislative maps during a pre-primary WisPolitics Debate on Jan. 9. Republicans called for her impeachment for committing to a Supreme Court case verdict before taking office.

The Wisconsin Constitution requires legislative districts “to consist of contiguous territory,” yet as The Associated Press recently reported, that’s not the case.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Milwaukee ahead of the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court race, stumping for now Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.  Holder noted just how “rigged” Wisconsin’s electoral maps really are in 2023. Wisconsin’s electoral maps are ranked as among the most gerrymandered in the nation.