Wisconsin’s state supreme court on Friday ruled that the state’s rotten gerrymandered district maps are unconstitutional AF because they give Republicans an unfair advantage. The court ordered the state Legislature — dominated by Republicans because what part of “gerrymandered district maps” did you miss? — to draw new, fair legislative boundaries in time for the 2024 elections. And if the Legislature doesn’t, the court’s opinion said, well by golly the court would do that as well.
As we have noted again and again, Wisconsin had been, until Friday, just about the most completely gerrymandered state in the USA. In voter registration and in presidential voting, it’s nearly a perfect 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats, but you wouldn’t know that from the lopsided majorities Republicans in the state Lege have given themselves with gerrymandered district maps, creating a supermajority in the state Senate and almost a supermajority in the House.
In recent statewide elections, though, voters have said no thank you very much to that. In 2020, voters braved the damned COVID virus to turn out for an April election — in person, because Republicans refused to allow for absentee voting and an extended deadline — to vote out one of the Republicans on the state supreme court, rightwinger Dan Kelly. That reduced its conservative majority from 5-2 to 4-3, and then last year, voters overwhelmingly elected liberal Janet Protasiewicz over Dan Kelly, who tried to win his seat back. And VIOLA! A liberal majority on Wisconsin’s high court, although Republicans were pretty sure that’s illegal.
Protasiewicz has withstood Republican attempts to impeach her, aided by the fact that she hadn’t done any crimes that would warrant impeachment, and so here we are, with the four liberal state Supremes voting to toss out maps that gave Republicans an unfair advantage. The court agreed with plaintiffs who said several district boundaries violated the state’s Constitution:
"We conclude that the current legislative maps contain districts that are not composed of 'contiguous territory' and therefore violate the Wisconsin Constitution," Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky, of the court's liberal wing, wrote for the majority.
Now that Protasiewicz has voted, the asshole Republicans will probably go ahead and impeach her, as Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) has threatened to do, claiming that because Protasiewicz had said the gerrymander stank even before the election, then obviously she was biased, unlike decent thoughtful Republican jurists who never consider partisan matters.
Vos took to Xwitter to Xwat,
“The case was pre-decided before it was even brought. Sad day for Wisconsin when the state supreme court just said last year that the existing lines are constitutional. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word.”
You see, partisan decisions are OK for Republican judges because Elections Have Consequences, but a liberal justice is clearly just rigging the system.
In a dissent that considered the law and only the law, Chief Justice Annette Ziegler made pretty much the same point as Vos’s Xweet, but very unbiased-like:
“This deal was sealed on election night,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote. […] She accused the court’s liberal majority of imposing “their will on the entire Assembly and half the Senate.” […]
“No longer is the judicial branch the least dangerous in Wisconsin,” Ziegler wrote. “The court of four's outcome-based, end-justifies-the-means judicial activist approach conflates the balance of governmental power the people separated into three separate branches, to but one: the judiciary.”
Translation: Why can’t Republicans impose a fake majority in a 50-50 state just because of some unelected elected court’s opinion? UNFAIR! How PARTISAN!
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, on the other hand, said in a statement he thought it might be a good idea to try democracy for the first time in a dozen years.
"Wisconsin is a purple state, and I look forward to submitting maps to the Court to consider and review that reflect and represent the makeup of our state."
What a tyrant!
And now it’s time to get Cartographers for Social Equality in there to do some maps, please.
SO MUCH PREVIOUSLY!
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All this stuff about maps is pure projection.