Wisconsin Supreme Court rules legislative maps unconstitutional, orders new boundaries for 2024 vote

MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Republican-controlled state Legislature to draw new legislative boundaries ahead of the 2024 election, arguing their GOP advantage is unconstitutional — delivering a long-sought win for Democrats who have stayed deep in the Legislature's minority for more than a decade.

The court in a 4-3 decision said the court is also prepared to replace the state's heavily gerrymandered maps if the Legislature and Democratic governor cannot agree on a new plan.

"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," Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement.Law Forward, a Madison-based liberal-leaning law firm focused on voting issues, brought the legal challenge straight to the Supreme Court in August — bypassing lower courts in an expedited effort to put new maps in place before the fall.

The court ordered lawmakers to have new maps adopted for the August legislative primary. Wisconsin Elections Commission officials have said new maps must be in place by March 15.

The ruling forces half of the state Senate and the full Assembly to run in new legislative districts. Republicans currently hold 64 of 99 seats in the state Assembly and a supermajority in the state Senate, with 22 of 33 seats.

The ruling delivers a political landmine ahead of the 2024 presidential cycle that will all but certainly focus on the battleground state of Wisconsin. It's the latest chink in Republican power since GOP dominance in Wisconsin state government began diminishing in 2016, when Donald Trump became president.

Since then, Republicans have lost the governor's office and control of the state Supreme Court.

In a narrowly divided state that often decides statewide races by a few thousand votes, Republicans have held wide majorities in the state Legislature for years.

"The case was pre-decided before it was even brought," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a post on the social media platform X. "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."

The court ruled 4-3 along ideological lines in favor of Democratic petitioners who argued the legislative maps must be thrown out because some districts' boundaries are not contiguous.

"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.

The court's newest justice, Janet Protasiewicz, who is a liberal, joined her colleagues in the majority — a move made after Vos had threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings if Protasiewicz took that route. Vos recently backed off such threats, however.

“This deal was sealed on election night,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler wrote in a dissenting opinion, referring to Protasiewicz's election in April, which flipped the court's ideological majority to liberal. She accused the court’s liberal majority of imposing “their will on the entire Assembly and half the Senate.”

Protasiewicz rejected calls from GOP legislative leaders to recuse herself from the lawsuit after referring to the state's electoral maps on the campaign trail as "rigged." Protasiewicz was elected in April with an 11-point margin.

“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.”

Justice Brian Hagedorn, who often acts as a swing vote, said the ruling was a "sad turn" for the court.

“Today, the court dives headlong into politics, choosing to wield the power it has while it has it,” the conservative justice wrote. “Wisconsinites searching for an institution unpolluted by partisan warfare will not find it here.”

If the GOP-controlled state Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers fail to pass new legislative boundaries, the court ruled it will consider the partisan makeup of the new map if they are forced to step in.

"We do not have free license to enact maps that privilege one political party over another," Karofsky wrote in the majority opinion.

Dan Lenz, an attorney for petitioners, said the ruling "is a victory for a representative democracy in the state of Wisconsin."

Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com and jessie.opoien@jrn.com.