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Redistricting Lawsuit
The liberal law firm that’s challenging Wisconsin’s congressional map wants three judges to decide the case instead of the state supreme court.
Law Forward on Friday filed a motion with the Wisconsin Supreme Court to kick the case to a three-judge-panel that’s never been called before.
“The statute is unambiguous: challenges to congressional districts go to a three-judge panel,” Doug Poland, Law Forward’s Director of Litigation said in a statement. “This is the first anti-competitive gerrymandering case ever filed in Wisconsin courts, and it deserves to be heard.”
Wisconsin lawmakers approved the three-judge-panel law back in 2011, but it has not been used in any of the gerrymandering or political map cases since then.
Law Forward said in its motion that’s irrelevant, and said Wisconsin law mirrors the federal law on gerrymandering challenges.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which is fighting Law Forward over the maps, said the specifics of the gerrymandering law are very important. And on Friday, WILL asked the court to ignore Law Forward’s push.
“At some point the redistricting merry-go-round has to stop, to give Wisconsin’s voters, candidates, and parties some stability—and faith in the rule of law,” WILL’s Luke Berg said. “These cases are a fig leaf to hide a naked grab at political power. We hope the Wisconsin Supreme Court does the right thing and promptly dismisses them.”
WILL pointed out on Friday that Law Forward asked, just three months ago, for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide the future of Wisconsin’s political maps. Also, WILL said Law Forward is trying to go back 14-years to resurrect a challenge to the current maps which were created after the 2020 Census. Those 2011 maps are no longer in play.
And lastly, WILL says Law Forward’s case against the current political maps “are so meritless and procedurally improper that the Court should dismiss them.”
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