Wisconsin Supreme Court agrees to hear second congressional maps challenge

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a challenge to the state’s congressional maps. The case is the second congressional maps lawsuit the Court has accepted in recent weeks, again raising the ire of the Court’s conservative minority.

The case, Bothfield v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, was filed last summer and argues that Wisconsin’s congressional districts are illegally gerrymandered for partisan advantage. Following a law enacted by Republicans under former Gov. Scott Walker, the case was sent to a panel of three circuit court judges. In March, the panel dismissed the case, finding that it was too similar to previous failed challenges against the congressional maps.

Late last month, the Court also agreed to hear an appeal of a different judicial panel’s decision in Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy v. WEC, which challenged the maps on the grounds that they’re illegally anti-competitive.

As in the previous case, the Court’s liberal majority agreeing to hear challenges to the congressional maps — which currently give Republicans control of six of the state’s eight districts — drew pointed criticism from conservative justices Rebecca Bradley and Annette Ziegler.



https://wisconsinexaminer.com/briefs/wisconsin-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-second-congressional-maps-challenge/