The state Supreme Court today agreed to hear an appeal on whether a three-judge panel properly dismissed a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s congressional map as a partisan gerrymander.
The decision comes nearly two weeks after it also agreed to hear whether a separate three-judge panel properly dismissed a similar lawsuit looking to overturn the lines as an anti-competitive gerrymander.
The liberal majority didn’t provide rationale for why it agreed to hear the appeal. The order only brushed aside procedural issues that conservative voters had raised in urging the court to dismiss the case.
But as with the partisan gerrymandering decision, conservative Justices Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley ripped the decision.
>> WisPolitics is now on the State Affairs network. Get custom keyword notifications, bill tracking and all WisPolitics content. Get the app or access via desktop.
Bradley’s dissent opened with the same line she used in the earlier case, slamming “An astonishingly activist court will once again revisit precedent it doesn’t like in order to do the bidding of its political masters.”
The court previously cited a 2011 law authored by Republicans to appoint a panel of three circuit court judges to hear the suit. That panel dismissed the case, citing a 2022 ruling by the state Supreme Court when it had a conservative majority that found claims of partisan gerrymandering can’t be heard in Wisconsin courts.
The panel that oversaw the anti-competitive gerrymandering case dismissed that suit on similar grounds.
The current lines have helped produce a 6-2 GOP majority.