Wisconsin Supreme Court appeal looms in map cases

Those who challenged the state’s congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander have filed notice they plan to appeal the ruling to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the parties in a challenge of the congressional map as an anti-competitive gerrymander are wrangling over the proper way to appeal a three-judge panel’s rejection of that lawsuit.

It’s the first time parties have used a 2011 GOP-authored law to challenge congressional districts. How the court decides that issue in the anti-competitive gerrymandering case could prevent the planned appeal over the partisan gerrymandering claims from moving forward.

That 2011 law directed the state Supreme Court to appoint panels of three circuit court judges to hear a map challenge. Separate panels in the two lawsuits earlier this year rejected the challenges. In both cases, the panels ruled a 2022 state Supreme Court decision barred them from considering cases that challenge districts based on their partisan composition.

The law states any appeal “may” be heard by the state Supreme Court and prohibits a court of appeals from reviewing a panel’s ruling.

An attorney for GOP members of the state’s congressional delegation earlier this month argued there are several possible interpretations of that provision in the law.

If the state Supreme Court must hear such an appeal, then a party would have 90 days to file a notice of appeal. But if the court has discretion on whether to take an appeal, the losing party would have 30 days to file a petition for review.

The Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy filed a notice of appeal earlier this month after the panel rejected its anti-competitive gerrymandering claim. If required to file a petition for review, it would have until next week to turn that in.

The three-judge panel in the partisan gerrymandering case rejected the suit March 31, and the attorneys for the Dem voters in that case filed a notice of appeal on Friday. That’s beyond the 30-day window if they’re required to file a petition for review.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which represented GOP voters in the case, wrote a letter to the court earlier this month backing the contention by the Republican members of Congress that the justices aren’t required to hear an appeal from a ruling by a three-judge panel.

WILL urged the court to dismiss the appeal filed in the anti-competitive gerrymandering case and require the plaintiffs to submit it as a petition for review. In the alternative, it called for a briefing schedule on whether the court should exercise its discretion on whether to hear the appeal.

GOP state lawmakers also submitted a letter backing WILL’s call.