MADISON, Wis. – Law Forward, along with co-counsel the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, filed a brief with the Wisconsin Supreme Court defending the proper procedure for their clients’ challenge to Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps of congressional districts.
The brief responds to questions about whether the case—which argues Wisconsin’s congressional map is an unconstitutional anti-competitive gerrymander—qualifies for review by a three-judge circuit court panel under a 2011 Wisconsin statute that has never been applied. That law requires the Supreme Court to appoint a three-judge panel to hear challenges to congressional or state legislative districts.
“The statute is unambiguous: challenges to congressional districts go to a three-judge panel,” said Doug Poland, Law Forward Director of Litigation. “This is the first anti-competitive gerrymandering case ever filed in Wisconsin courts, and it deserves to be heard. We look forward to the opportunity to advance this case and prove that the state’s congressional maps must be redrawn to ensure a truly representative democracy.”
Although the state law requiring the three-judge panel has never been applied, the brief argues that Wisconsin’s statute mirrors federal law that has required three-judge panels for all types of redistricting challenges for decades. That federal law has been used time after time in cases challenging Wisconsin districts.
The underlying case challenges Wisconsin’s current congressional map as an extreme anti-competitive gerrymander that protects incumbents and eliminates meaningful electoral competition. Plaintiffs include individual voters from each of Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts and Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy.
Click here to view the filing.
