Brief

State Supreme Court prepares to take up Wisconsin voting maps

By: Ruth Conniff - November 17, 2021 7:57 pm

East gallery in the Wisconsin State Capitol at Supreme Court entrance from across the rotunda

Wisconsin Capitol East Gallery, Supreme Court (Keith Ewing | Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0)

The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday setting a schedule to take up the state’s voting maps in the event that Gov. Tony Evers and the Legislature do not come to an agreement on a new map — a virtual certainty, since Evers has said he will veto the map passed by the Republican-led Legislature when it reaches his desk.

The Supreme Court will issue an opinion on or about Nov. 30, the order states, answering the question “what factors should we consider in evaluating or creating new maps?” In addition, the court will respond to a request by the petitioners in Johnson v Wisconsin Elections Commission, filed by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, that it take a “least change” approach and maintain as much as possible of the existing voting maps, which heavily favor Republican majorities in the state Legislature. Finally, the court will address the question, “Is the partisan makeup of districts a valid factor for us to consider in evaluating or creating new maps?”

Lawyers must submit maps by mid-December under the schedule set out by the order, with a trial to be set in mid-January.

2021AP1450-OA (11-17-21)

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Ruth Conniff

Ruth Conniff is Editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner. She formerly served as Editor-in-chief of The Progressive Magazine where she worked for many years from both Madison and Washington, DC. Shortly after Donald Trump took office she moved with her family to Oaxaca, Mexico, and covered U.S./Mexico relations, the migrant caravan, and Mexico’s efforts to grapple with Trump. Conniff is a frequent guest on MSNBC and has appeared on Good Morning America, Democracy Now!, Wisconsin Public Radio, CNN, Fox News and many other radio and television outlets. She has also written for The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. Her book "Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers" won the 2022 Studs and Ida Terkel Award from The New Press.