Legislative Maps in Wisconsin Overturned by Court, Ruled GOP-Made Invalid

The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Republican-drawn legislative maps Friday, ordering new state electoral districts be drawn before the 2024 election.

In a 4-3 decision, the state’s high court found that the current maps violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s requirements that districts be continuous and not feature any “separate or detached territories.”

However, in the maps passed by Republicans in September, a majority of state Assembly and Senate districts would have featured separate or detached territories.

“We hold that the contiguity requirements … mean what they say: Wisconsin’s state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory,” Justice Jill Karofsky wrote in the majority opinion.

“The constitutional text and our precedent support this common-sense interpretation of contiguity,” she added.

Karofsky was joined by Justices Janet Protasiewicz, Ann Walsh Bradley, and Rebecca Dallet in the majority. Justices Annette Ziegler, Rebecca Bradley, and Brian Hagedorn dissented.

The decision was split entirely along conservative and liberal lines. In Wisconsin, most Supreme Court justices are picked in nonpartisan elections. Only one justice — Bradley — was appointed by a governor.

Ziegler wrote in the conservative minority’s dissent that the court used “judicial activism on steroids” by thwarting the state Legislature’s job of creating the districts.

“The court of four takes a wrecking ball to the law, making no room, nor having any need, for longstanding practices, procedures, traditions, the law, or even their co-equal fellow branches of government,” Ziegler wrote.

Going forward, the parties to the lawsuit challenging the legislative map will be allowed to submit remedial maps to the court for use in 2024 unless the GOP-controlled Legislature can successfully pass maps Democrat Gov. Tony Evers is willing to sign.

As it stands, Republicans hold a 64-35 majority in the Wisconsin State Assembly and a 22-11 supermajority in the state Senate.