CASE SUMMARY

On August 23, 2021, a Wisconsin non-profit and several voters filed a petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court seeking original jurisdiction to challenge the state’s then-still-in-effect 2010-cycle congressional and legislative redistricting plans as malapportioned in violation of the Wisconsin Constitution’s one person, one vote requirement. Petitioners also argued their action should be controlling over the state’s redistricting process rather than a similar challenge that had been filed in federal court, Hunter v. Bostelmann, since redistricting is primarily a state – not federal – function. They sought a judicial declaration the 2010-cycle plans were unconstitutional, an injunction barring their use in future elections, a stay on the case until the Wisconsin Legislature had enacted new plans, and, if challenges were filed thereto, for the court to determine the legality of those plans. Petitioners also requested that the court adopt new redistricting plans without regard to their political effects if the legislature and governor failed to do so.

  • On November 30, 2021, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order explaining its judicial resolution of this redistricting dispute would be limited to remedying the violation of “justiciable and cognizable” rights under the U.S. Constitution, the Wisconsin Constitution, or the federal Voting Rights Act. For that reason, the Court said its remedy would make the minimum changes necessary to bring the plans into compliance with constitutional and legal requirements, including equal population, and would not consider the partisan composition of districts since their political makeup did not implicate any cognizable or justiciable right.
  • The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments on January 19, 2022.
  • On March 3, 2022, the Court adopted the Wisconsin Governor’s proposed congressional and legislative plans as final. Four days later, the Wisconsin Legislature filed an emergency application for a stay on the legislative plan decision with the U.S. Supreme Court pending their full petition for a writ of certiorari. Two days after, a similar application was filed with respect to the congressional plan by several Wisconsin Congressmen who had intervened in the case.
  • On March 23, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the stay requested by the Congressmen-Intervenors. That same day, it reversed and remanded the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s legislative plans decision on the grounds it misapplied the Court’s Equal Protection and Voting Rights Act precedents, specifically Cooper v. Harris which requires a State to show it had a “strong basis in evidence” that race-based redistricting decisions were necessary to comply with VRA § 2. Here, the Court found neither the Wisconsin Supreme Court nor the Governor sufficiently established why a seventh majority-minority district was necessary for VRA compliance, citing the Governor’s uncritical majority-minority maximization approach and the lower court’s insufficient Gingles analysis.
  • On April 15, 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, on remand, adopted the Wisconsin Legislature’s proposed legislative plans as final on the grounds they, as race-neutral plans, were the only maps before it that complied with the U.S. Constitution, the VRA, and the Court’s least changes approach.

Related Cases: Hunter v. Bostelmann; Black Leaders Organizing for Communities v. Spindell

CASE LIBRARY

Wisconsin Supreme Court - No. 2021AP001450

U.S. Supreme Court - No. 21A471 [The Wisconsin Legislature v. Wisconsin Elections Commission]

U.S. Supreme Court - No. 21A490 [Grothman v. Wisconsin Elections Commission]

Wisconsin Supreme Court - No. 2021AP1450-OA [On Remand]