A conservative majority in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court voted Friday to pass new state legislative cards drawn up by Republicans who control the legislature, overturning its previous decision, which favored maps drawn up by the Democratic governor.
The court ruled after the US Supreme Court overturned its previous ruling last month, saying in a controversial ruling that state judges had not judged whether Democrat cards complied with federal voting rights.
The newly adopted maps – guerrilla germanders who were secretly drawn in 2011 after Republicans took control of Democrats in both houses of the legislature – essentially lock the vast Republican majority in the Assembly and Senate for the next decade.
A month-long legal battle began in November when Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed Republican-attracted legislative districts. The state supreme court resolved the conflict in March by voting 4 to 3 in favor of maps drawn up by the governor, which slightly reduced the Republican majority.
These maps included the seventh constituency of the Assembly, in which black voters had a majority, a move that Republican lawmakers called a “racial hero of the 21st century” in an urgent appeal to the US Supreme Court. The court then sent the cards back to state judges to review their compliance with the Voting Rights Act.
What you need to know about redistribution
However, the US Supreme Court rejected another Republican appeal after state judges chose the governor’s version of the Wisconsin congressional map. The state has eight seats in the House of Representatives, and Republicans have a majority of five to three.
In a ruling Friday, state judges said the governor “had more than enough opportunity to set a sufficient record” to justify a seventh district with a black majority, but failed to do so. In contrast, they said Republican maps were “racially neutral” and complied with state and federal guidelines.
In the long-running disagreement of the three Democrats in court, Judge Jill J. Karofsky called the approval of the Republican maps pointless, noting that while Mr Evers’ maps added a black-majority assembly area, Republican maps removed one.
If the addition of such a county is evidence of unreasonable reliance on race when drawing maps, she writes, “then the removal of legislative power in a majority and minority area in Milwaukee reveals an equally suspicious, if not more experienced, sign of racial drawing. . ”
Mr Evers called the decision scandalous, saying state judges had “clearly and decisively rejected the legislature’s cards before the case was heard by the Supreme Court”.
Outsiders have speculated that the governor may try to return the matter to the US Supreme Court, but he seems to rule out such a move, calling the ruling “an unintentional miscarriage of justice for which the people of this state will not find a reprieve for another decade.”
This seems to be clearing the way for candidates to start collecting petitions for the primary election for state legislatures on August 9. Some people were unable to apply as candidates until the final cards determined which areas they would seek to represent.
Proponents of the right to vote were quick to condemn the state court’s decision.
“Without any legal basis or precedent, and ignoring a decision they made just a month ago, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is showing its true colors: political gain before the justice of the judiciary,” said Sachin Cheda, director of the state’s Fair Elections Project. declaration.
How US redistribution works
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What is redistribution? This is redrawing the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts. This happens every 10 years after the census to reflect population changes.
How it works? The census dictates how many seats each state will receive in Congress. Map makers then work to ensure that all regions of the country have approximately the same number of residents to ensure equal representation in the House.
Who draws the new cards? Each country has its own process. Eleven states leave mapping on an outer panel. But most – 39 states – are urging state lawmakers to draw new maps for Congress.
If state legislators can draw their own districts, won’t they be biased? Yes. Guerrilla mapmakers often move the lines of counties – imperceptibly or rudely – to unite voters in a way that progresses toward a political goal. This is called gerrymandering.
Is gerrymandering legal? Yes and no. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that federal courts had no role in blocking guerrilla herrimanders. However, the court left intact parts of the Voting Rights Act that prohibit racial or ethnic fraud.
The Conservative Institute for Law and Freedom of Wisconsin, which briefed the case, said judges were right to “recognize that our Constitution preserves race-based decision-making for the most extreme situations.”
“The governor did not justify his reorientation based on race,” the organization continued. “The court was right to dismiss him.”
Wisconsin is one of the most contested legal battlefields for guerrilla fraud. Challenging Republican and State Senate Republican maps, which were drawn up in 2011, among the most distorted such maps ever approved, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, but was rejected when the court said it the plaintiffs have no legal position.
A second federal challenge died in 2019 after the Supreme Court ruled that guerrilla warlords were political issues outside its jurisdiction.
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