State Supreme Court orders briefs on redistricting lawsuits
The law firms filed the lawsuits in July, asking the high court to use a mechanism created by Republican state lawmakers in 2011 to expedite redistricting challenges.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ordered parties to file legal briefs to determine whether two politically charged lawsuits challenging the state's congressional map should be allowed to proceed.
The decision, issued September 25, comes in response to requests from two law firms to appoint a special three-judge judicial panel to consider the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Rather than immediately appointing the panel, the court's majority ordered the parties to file briefs arguing whether the lawsuits constitute a valid "action to challenge the apportionment of a congressional or state legislative district." The majority didn’t offer any rationale in its 6-1 ruling and gave the parties 14 days to respond.
The law firms filed the lawsuits in July, asking the high court to use a mechanism created by Republican state lawmakers in 2011 to expedite redistricting challenges. That law requires the Supreme Court to appoint a three-judge circuit court panel if requested by parties in a circuit court case, with any appeal going directly to the high court. One of the suits seeking a three-judge panel argues the map is a partisan gerrymander. The other calls it an “anti-competitive gerrymander” because only one district has been remotely competitive since the lines were drawn.
However, the validity of the suits was immediately challenged. An attorney for one of the plaintiffs recently notified the Supreme Court that a Dane County judge denied a request to set a briefing schedule, citing a violation of the decade-old legislative law.
Justice Rebecca Bradley was the only justice to dissent, arguing the cases should be dismissed outright. Bradley questioned the constitutionality of the 2011 law requiring the court to appoint the panels, stating the legislature cannot force a circuit court to review a final judgment of the Supreme Court. She argued the 2011 law only applies to maps drawn by lawmakers, not lines selected by the Supreme Court.
“No Wisconsin Circuit Court may review, much less overrule, a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court,” Bradley wrote. “The legislature cannot require a circuit court to invade a final judgment of the State’s highest court.”
The legal maneuver in Wisconsin is unfolding as political battles over congressional maps intensify nationwide. Both Democrats and Republicans in several states are aggressively pursuing map changes ahead of the next election cycle to maximize their parties' chances of securing a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
