The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on March 23 Wisconsin state legislative maps drafted by the state’s Democratic governor and approved by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court also declined to block a new congressional map for the state that was chosen by the Wisconsin court. Republicans currently hold five of the state’s eight congressional seats, while Democrats hold three.
Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature in the Badger State. Population shifts discovered after the 2020 Census forced the state to go through redistricting, a process that was hotly contested by both political parties. Republicans approved maps in 2011, when they controlled the legislature and the governorship, but this time, the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and the Republican-dominated legislature could not agree on new maps.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin was then asked to draw the maps to be used in the next elections. That court invited interested parties, including the legislature and the governor, to propose new maps consistent with the state constitution, U.S. Constitution, and the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). On March 3, the Wisconsin court voted 4-3 to accept the maps drawn by the governor.
The case is Wisconsin Legislature v. Bostelmann, court file 21A471. Marge Bostelmann is a member of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The emergency application brought by Wisconsin Republicans was addressed to Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who referred the matter to the full court.
Republicans asked the high court to throw out a state legislative electoral map drawn by Evers, which they say is racially skewed, in favor of one crafted by the Republican-controlled state legislature. Republicans say Evers shifted too many voters to form an additional majority-black district; Democrats claimed the shifting had to be done in order to comply with the VRA.
Currently, six state Assembly districts have a black majority, but the map provided by Evers would raise that number to seven.
Republicans argued in the emergency application (pdf) filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on March 7 that Evers’s maps “mark a radical redraw from Wisconsin’s past redistricting plans” and that they make Wisconsin “home to the 21st-century racial gerrymander.”
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