Justice Jill Karofsky wrote the majority opinion. She was joined by Justices Rebecca Dallett, Janet Protasiewicz, and Ann Walsh Bradley. Dissenting were Justices Rebecca Grassl Bradley, Brian Hagedorn, and Annette Ziegler.
From CNN:
The state high court also said it was prepared to step in should legislators not take action.
“We are hopeful that the legislative process will produce new legislative district maps,” the ruling stated. “However, should that fail to happen, this court is prepared to adopt remedial maps based on the criteria, process, and dates set forth in this opinion and the concurrent order.”
From The New York Times (paywall alert!):
In an angry dissent, Justice Annette Ziegler, one of three conservatives on the panel, denounced the liberal majority as “robewearers” who “grab power and fast-track this partisan call to remap Wisconsin.”
“The court of four takes a wrecking ball to the law, making no room, nor having any need, for longstanding practices, procedures, traditions, the law, or even their coequal fellow branches of government,” she wrote. “Their activism damages the judiciary as a whole.”
From The Washington Post (paywall alert!)
In a 4-3decision along ideological lines, the justices said that at least 50 of the 99 Assembly districts and at least 20 of the 33 Senate districts in the map violate a mandate in the state’s constitution that requires state legislative districts be composed of “contiguous territory.” Many of the state’s districts include portions that are not attached to other parts of the same district.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"We do not have free license to enact maps that privilege one political party over another," Karofsky wrote in the majority opinion.
From NBC:
While the ruling almost certainly won’t swing Republican control of either legislative chamber to Democrats, it is likely to weaken the GOP’s 12-year hold in both, according to recent analyses of the maps by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Associated Press.
That, in turn, could help boost future efforts to reverse years of conservative policies in the state on issues related to election administration, unions and abortion. New maps could also shift Republicans further away from a supermajority (the party currently has one in the state Senate and is only two seats short of having one in the state Assembly), and with it, the ability to overturn Evers’ vetoes.
From Politico:
Dan Lenz, an attorney for Law Forward, which brought the lawsuit, called the ruling “a victory for a representative democracy in the state of Wisconsin.”
“For too long, rightwing interests have rigged the rules without any consequences,” he said in a statement. “Gerrymandered maps have distorted the political landscape, stifling the voice of the voters. It challenges the very essence of fair representation and erodes confidence in our political system.”
From The Cap Times:
Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls, a nonprofit that focuses on turning out voters in the Black community, praised the decision, saying it would give Black voters a real voice in legislative elections.
"For far too long, Black voters have been silenced by gerrymandered maps that manipulate who has more of a say," Lewis said in a statement. "It’s unfair. It’s cheating. Now, we’ll get a chance to see what happens when voters choose their representatives, not the other way around.”
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