Wisconsin Is a Gerrymandered State:
How Can We Change It?
By Joan I. Schwarz, Attorney, LWVDC board member, Dane County Redistricting Commission member
The U.S. 2020 Census reflects the population changes that have occurred in the previous decade. The districting maps establish the congressional and legislative boundaries that will be drawn in Wisconsin and will determine if Wisconsin remains the gerrymandered state that it became in 2011 when the legislature drew the partisan districting maps that have controlled every election since then. In fact, according to former Attorney General Eric Holder, Wisconsin is the most gerrymandered state in the country.
To end gerrymandering in Wisconsin, Governor Evers has established the People’s Maps Commission to receive input from Wisconsinites throughout the state. This Commission will draft non-partisan maps for the next 10 years, as is done in other states like Iowa, which has maps drawn by a non-partisan legislative staff to avoid the litigious battles that incur costly taxpayer money in Wisconsin. The intent of a People’s Maps Commission plan is that if and when the redistricting maps end up in court, they will stand in stark contrast to the partisan maps that are drawn by Wisconsin’s one-party legislature.
Once litigation begins, the outlook for ending gerrymandering is not clear nor favorable, given recent history. In Wisconsin, Republican legislators have already filed a Rules Change Petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court so that the redistricting maps are to be heard directly by the Supreme Court without any input from the lower courts. Likewise, if and when the redistricting maps reach the federal court system, the outlook for ending gerrymandering is also not favorable. While federal courts have decided on “judicially discoverable and manageable standards” for resolving gerrymandering, when these cases have been appealed to the United States Supreme Court, the highest court has effectively foreclosed dealing with the issue.
In two significant redistricting cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, it has held that “states officials’ intent to entrench their party in power is perfectly “permissible”, even when it is the predominant factor in drawing district lines” and that “federal courts are not equipped nor authorized to apportion political power as a matter of fairness”, since to the court, “it is not even clear what fairness looks like in this context.” The bottom-line then for the U.S. Supreme Court is that “judicial review is an impossible undertaking for courts” and thus falls within what is called the “Political Question Doctrine.” This doctrine simply means that the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that partisan gerrymandering claims are not “claims of legal right” resolvable according to legal principles, but instead are “political questions” that must find their resolution in legislation or constitutional amendments.
For a more extended discussion of the importance of grassroots organization to end gerrymandering and the legal ramifications once the redistricting maps end up in litigation, please visit the LWV of Dane County’s forum webpage for additional resource materials.
Special note: Mark your calendars for LWVDC’s upcoming virtual forum, Wisconsin’s Path Forward: Election and Redistricting, scheduled for Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. You can register here.
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