Poland: “The struggle to achieve fair and politically neutral state legislative districts has been a long and arduous one in Wisconsin. Revisiting how we arrived at this landmark achievement can provide strategies and hope as we confront other developing and continuing challenges to our democracy.”
MADISON, Wis. – As the fight for fair congressional maps in Wisconsin continues, Law Forward Director of Litigation Doug Poland has written a new explanation of the hard-fought legal battles that achieved fair state legislative districts in Wisconsin. Poland’s review follows a recent PlanScore confirmation that in November 2024, for the first time in 14 years, Wisconsin voters cast their ballots to elect state legislators in districts that were not gerrymandered to favor one political party.
Poland details the deliberate process that began following Governor Walker’s enactment of Act 43 in 2011, which was a textbook example of an extreme partisan gerrymander. Subsequent legal challenges in Whitford v. Gill, Johnson v. Wisconsin Election Commission, and Clarke v. Wisconsin Election Commission all contributed to the fair state legislative maps in place today.
Now, Law Forward is continuing to push for competitive congressional maps in Wisconsin, as part of a team of lawyers in Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy v. Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Read Poland’s full piece online here.
Since the approaching holidays and end of the year naturally invite reflection on significant events over the past year, it is timely to celebrate that just last month, the website PlanScore released an analysis confirming that in November 2024, for the first time in 14 years, Wisconsin voters cast their ballots to elect state legislators in districts that were not gerrymandered to provide candidates, based solely on their partisan affiliation, advantage significant enough to violate voters’ constitutional rights. The PlanScore analysis confirms that, for the first time since 2000, Wisconsin held an election in which the state legislative districts were politically neutral.
In other words, we finally have fair maps!
This result did not come about by simple happenstance. It came through a long, hard, deliberate legal process culminating in the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s December 22, 2023 ruling in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, a lawsuit that Law Forward and several collaborating law firms brought, which forced the Legislature to finally work with the Governor to adopt fair and politically neutral maps. The struggle to achieve fair and politically neutral state legislative districts has been a long and arduous one in Wisconsin. Revisiting how we arrived at this landmark achievement can provide strategies and hope as we confront other developing and continuing challenges to our democracy.
