A three-judge panel today dismissed a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s congressional map as an anti-competitive gerrymander.

The panel found the suit was barred by a 2022 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that found the partisan composition of districts can’t be challenged in state courts. The judges wrote as “an inferior court,” they were obligated to follow that ruling.

Today’s decision comes after a second three-judge panel rejected a different challenge to the map, which has helped produce a 6-2 GOP supermajority. That panel also found it was bound by prior state Supreme Court rulings that barred the challenge claiming the map is a partisan gerrymander.

The plaintiffs in the anti-competitive gerrymander case sought to separate their challenge to the claim that the map is an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

But the three-judge panel found the claims are “functionally equivalent.” The court found the competitiveness of a map was a “subjective question with no governing standards,” similar to questions over the fairness of lines. Thus, the Supreme Court’s prior rulings barring a challenge based on partisan gerrymandering claims also apply to a lawsuit claiming a map isn’t competitive.

“In a two-party system, partisan fairness and competitiveness are correlated: a more competitive map is typically a fairer map, whereas less competition usually means less partisan fairness,” the court ruled, finding the objective of both is to change the partisan makeup of districts.