(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have launched an effort to urge the state Supreme Court to shut down the latest challenge to congressional maps before it can even start.
The lawsuit, filed by Law Forward on behalf of Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy and others, alleges the state’s current congressional district maps are “anti-competitive gerrymanders” that disadvantage voters by protecting incumbents, The Center Square previously reported.
However, unlike previous unsuccessful challenges to the current maps, Law Forward filed the lawsuit in the Dane County circuit court, not in the state Supreme Court.
They want the court to appoint a three-judge panel to hear the case and potentially redraw the maps before the 2026 midterm elections.
Wisconsin GOP House members are arguing that the Wisconsin Supreme Court should defend the current maps and consider delaying action on the new lawsuit before appointing a panel to hear the challenge.
“This Court should order the parties–as well as any proposed intevenors–to address, inter alia, whether this Court should dismiss this case because an inferior tribunal cannot lawfully adjudicate the constitutionality of the relief that this Court issued in Johnson II,” wrote Misha Tseytlin, the attorney representing the representatives and other individual voters.
“Johnson II” refers to the current maps adopted by the court in 2022 in Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Because the state constitution provides that the state Supreme Court is the “court of last resort,” Tseytlin argues that a lower court isn’t allowed to overrule or revisit the decision in Johnson II.
Although Law Forward wants the court to appoint a three-judge panel after receiving a challenge, that process has never been completely used before.
Law Forward attorney Doug Poland said the panel could be used to address the issues raised by House Republicans to avoid “miring” the court in “endless briefing.”
“This Court can, and should, use this opportunity—nearly six years before redistricting in the wake of the 2030 decennial census—to establish a thoughtful, measured, and procedurally proper template for future invocations of these untested venue statutes unique to redistricting actions,” Poland told WisPolitics.
