Redistricting 2022
Five top takeaways from the midterms in Wisconsin
This week’s midterm elections were most notable for what didn’t happen. There was no “shellacking” of Democrats. The much-talked-about red wave failed to materialize. Armed vigilantes did not descend in force on polling places to harass and intimidate voters. Neither, for the most part, did a flood of baseless accusations of fraud derail Democratic victories, […]
Hagedorn blinks on Wisconsin redistricting maps
The horrendous ruling on redistricting maps by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court on Good Friday marks a new low for our state.The 4-3 decision by the conservatives on the court imposed the rigged maps that the Republican Legislature passed last fall, which Gov. Evers had vetoed. Those maps are even more tilted toward Republicans than the notorious ones the Republicans passed […]
State Supreme Court reverses itself, picks GOP maps for Legislature
On Friday evening, the Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed course and chose new political maps decided by the Republican-held Legislature — extending the state’s strict partisan gerrymander for another ten years. March 1, the state Supreme Court decided Wisconsin’s new political dividing lines in a 4-3 decision. Conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn sided with the court’s liberals […]
Supreme Court decision on Wisconsin maps part of a drive to undermine democracy
Over and over again during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Biden nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Republicans denounced the idea of “packing the Court” by expanding the number of justices from nine to 13. But Wednesday’s decision rejecting Wisconsin’s voting maps and throwing the 2022 election process — which is already underway […]
U.S. Supreme Court hands Wisconsin GOP a victory on maps
The rightwingers on the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday hastily and recklessly interjected themselves into the Wisconsin redistricting process and handed the Republicans in the State Legislature a victory. The justices threw out the legislative maps that Gov. Evers had drawn, and that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had approved. Instead, they threw the task of […]
Can Wisconsin government ever become functional again?
Politics have become so dysfunctional in Wisconsin that the Legislature has taken to simply ignoring the things people actually care about, in order to focus on wild conspiracies about how the election was stolen from Donald Trump. From removing toxic chemicals from our drinking water to adequately funding our schools to dealing with a completely […]
Justice Amy Coney Barrett requests responses in Wisconsin redistricting case
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has signaled her possible interest in hearing a challenge to last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision instituting electoral maps proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The Republican-held Legislature, which instituted one of the most extensive partisan gerrymanders in the country in 2011, has continued to search for ways […]
Supreme Court chooses maps proposed by Evers in redistricting case
The Wisconsin Supreme Court chose proposals by Gov. Tony Evers for new Assembly, Senate and Congressional maps in the state, though because of a decision last year, the maps don’t change much from the strict partisan gerrymander that has been in place for the last decade. Because of Wisconsin’s political geography, a Democratic majority in […]
Milwaukee prosecutor suggests state and federal DOJ investigate fake GOP electors
The Milwaukee District Attorney’s office has referred a request for criminal action against 10 Wisconsin Republicans to the state Department of Justice. Jeff Mandell, an attorney with Law Forward, revealed the news during a national press briefing with pro-democracy groups on Thursday. Mandell last February had sent a criminal referral asking the Milwaukee County District […]
Supreme Court hears oral arguments in redistricting case
The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case that will decide the state’s political maps for the next decade on Wednesday. The seven justices focused their questions on how to balance competing interests such as compliance with the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and maintaining municipal boundaries as they work out how to draw […]
Evers vetoes Republican maps, moving fight to state Supreme Court
Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the redistricting bills passed earlier this month by Republicans, setting up a court battle over Wisconsin’s new political dividing lines that will first go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Evers said on Thursday that the maps proposed by Republicans were “gerrymandering 2.0” because they solidify the dividing lines that have given […]
As redistricting fight heats up, Democrats fight over Voting Rights Act compliance
For ten years, Wisconsin Democrats have fought a sisyphean battle against the gerrymandered political maps passed by Republicans in 2011. That battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and inspired most of the state’s counties to pass resolutions in favor of a nonpartisan mapmaking process. Now, as Republicans in the Senate and […]