CASE SUMMARY

On July 8, 2015, a group of Wisconsin voters filed a federal lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's enacted state House redistricting plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Plaintiffs claimed the plan intentionally discriminated against Democratic voters based on their political affiliation in violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause and the 1st Amendment's Freedom of Speech and Association protections. In support of their claims, plaintiffs introduced evidence analyzing the plan using the "efficiency gap," which they asserted would provide the court with a "workable" standard for measuring partisan gerrymandering claims. They sought a judicial declaration that Wisconsin's state House plan was unconstitutional, an injunction barring the state from utilizing the plan in future elections, and for the court to establish a new, lawful plan in the event the state failed to do so.

  • On November 21, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin struck down the state House plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, finding it was intended to dilute the voting strength of Democratic voters, it had this intended effect, and these discriminatory effects were not explained by Wisconsin's political geography nor justified by any legitimate state interest. The court barred the plan from use in future elections and ordered the state to enact a remedial plan by November 1, 2017. On February 24, 2017, the defendants appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • On June 18, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held the plaintiffs failed to establish Article III standing, vacated, and remanded the case. The Court explained Article III standing requires plaintiffs to establish the challenged action caused them a "concrete and particularized" injury to a "legally protected interest" and, here, plaintiffs only established the statewide harms of the alleged partisan gerrymandering. Rather than dismissing the case, however, the Court sent the case back to the district court to allow the plaintiffs an opportunity to establish standing.
  • On January 23, 2019, the district court stayed the case pending the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in two consolidated partisan gerrymandering cases then-pending before it, Rucho v. Common Cause and Benisek v. Lamone.
  • On June 27, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Rucho decision holding that partisan gerrymandering claims present non-justiciable political questions which federal courts lack subject matter jurisdiction over. In light of the Rucho ruling, the district court dismissed this case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on July 2, 2019.

CASE LIBRARY

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin - No. 3:15-cv-421 [Formerly Whitford v. Nichol]

U.S. Supreme Court - No. 16-1161

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin - No. 3:15-cv-421 [On remand]