The Wisconsin Legislature and its allies have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to redraw the State’s map in a way that would solidify the State’s 2011 partisan gerrymander for the next decade. ELC is representing five plaintiffs from Whitford v. Gill as amici curiae who want to ensure that the Wisconsin Supreme Court does not perpetuate the gerrymander under the guise of a “least-change” approach. The Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted the Governor’s maps and the State Legislature sought injunctive relief at the Supreme Court of the United States. On March 23, 2022, The Supreme Court of the United States said the Wisconsin Supreme Court erred in choosing the Governor’s maps. The case was remanded to the Wisconsin Supreme Court

NEWS

BACKGROUND

In 2011, the Wisconsin legislature enacted an egregious partisan gerrymander, diluting Democratic voters’ voices and entrenching Republicans in power under any likely electoral scenario. A federal court found that partisan gain was the driving force in the line-drawing process.  The scheme worked.  The map entrenched the Republican party regardless of voter preference.  When Democrats won about 52% of the statewide vote in 2012, for example, they won 39 Assembly seats; two years later, when Republicans won a roughly equivalent vote share, they won 63 seats.  According to PlanScore, the current maps remain among the most gerrymandered in modern history.

Now, the legislature and the governor are deadlocked on next decade’s maps, and a group called Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to intervene (Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission). WILL asks the Court to use a least-change approach to draw new maps, perpetuating last decade’s gerrymander through the next ten years.  That approach appears nowhere in Wisconsin law, and actively undermines the criteria that do appear in the state Constitution.  Worse yet, it is a naked attempt by politicians to use the courts to extend their undemocratic gerrymander.

Across the political spectrum, Wisconsin voters oppose gerrymandering—including 84% of Republicans, 88% of independents, and 91% of Democrats.  Wisconsin Polling: Voters See as a Major Problem, Want Reform, RepresentUS (Aug. 24, 2021).  Representing five Wisconsin voters as amici curiae, or “friends of the court,” ELC is fighting for fair maps so voters can elect their representatives, rather than partisan politicians and their allies deciding which Wisconsin votes count.