Redistricting fight heats up; Decision about maps needed in about a month

MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court has about a month left to put in place new legislative maps as part of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the current Republican-drawn maps − a process that is drawing heavy political fire.

Two court-appointed redistricting consultants on Thursday effectively ruled out the only proposals from Republicans, suggesting the court will consider plans submitted by Democrats or university professors as part of their work to draft new maps to replace the boundaries that the court ruled in December to be unconstitutional.

The analysis by Bernard Grofman of the University of California, Irvine and Jonathan Carvas of Carnegie Mellon University is being blasted by Republicans − signaling the already fierce fight over power in the state Legislature will get even more heated.

Rick Esenberg, president and chief counsel of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which submitted a proposal to the court, said the consultants were acting within a "fog of faux sophistication." And the state GOP described the consultants' report as a "brazen hack job by left-wing partisan actors."

"One can only conclude that (newly elected Supreme Court Justice) Janet Protasiewicz and her Democratic colleagues on the Supreme Court are using this ‘report’ as a convenient excuse to take a ham-fisted blue marker to the maps in whatever way their out-of-state, dark-money donors demand," GOP spokesman Matt Fisher said in a statement.

Dan Lenz, an attorney for liberal-leaning Law Forward, which also submitted a map proposal to the court, said the consultants' report signals the current legislative maps will no longer be in place.

"What this report ultimately means is that the extreme Republican gerrymander Wisconsinites have been living under for 13 years is very close to coming to an end," Lenz said in a statement. "This is another important step to once again have a representative democracy in Wisconsin."

Barry Burden, a political science professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university's Elections Research Center, said GOP efforts to brand the consultants as biased toward Democrats "are not convincing."

"Cervas and Grofman have worked for both major parties in the past and have proven records of designing districts that sometimes displease Democrats and sometimes displease Republicans," Burden said. "Their analysis in this case was a straightforward and transparent look at the legal criteria that had to be considered. Grofman even worked for Republicans in Wisconsin during prior redistricting cycles."

"The range of maps deemed by the consultants to be acceptable would cause party control of the legislature to be up for grabs in a competitive election cycle. It is not too surprising that GOP officials would be unhappy about that," he said.

Burden said because several map submissions performed similarly, the justices may decide to value some criteria more than others in their work to choose a map.

"In contrast to trying to pick a single winner from among the submissions, it was much for the consultants to spot the maps that clearly failed to meet the criteria identified by the court. Their analysis is valuable because it reduces the number of maps justices need to consider down to those that actually comply with the court's requirements," he said.

Vos signals appeal to U.S. Supreme Court

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has signaled he would seek an appeal of the court's ultimate action to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Though the nation's highest court is controlled by conservatives, it's unclear how an appeal over legislative boundaries would be received.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled federal judges do not have the power to stop politicians from drawing districts to give their party an advantage.

"We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts," Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.

"Federal judges have no license to reallocate political power between the two major political parties, with no plausible grant of authority in the Constitution, and no legal standards to limit and direct their decisions."

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has said the new maps must be in place by March 15 to ensure clerks have enough time to properly administer elections.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fight over legislative maps heats up as deadline looms