A prominent Democratic law firm asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday to toss out the state’s congressional maps, just as the court did last month when it ordered the state Assembly and Senate districts to be redrawn.
The motion, filed by the Elias Law Group, a national firm routinely involved in litigation on elections-related matters, asked the state’s highest court to order new maps of the U.S. House districts representing Wisconsin ahead of the 2024 election.
Republicans now outnumber Democrats six to two in representing Wisconsin's eight congressional districts.
Wisconsin officials are already under a tight deadline to redraw the state Legislature's district boundaries before voters head to the polls later this year. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a pre-Christmas bombshell, struck down the current lines as unconstitutional.
In doing so, the liberal justices in the majority said they wouldn't evaluate new maps based on a principle — used by the court’s conservative majority in 2021 — that promotes as little change as possible from the old maps to the new lines.
That “least change” approach governed the drawing of the new congressional maps, which were proposed by Gov. Tony Evers in 2021 and approved by the state Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to that decision in 2022.
But the motion filed Tuesday argues that the departure from the “least change” model should mean that the congressional maps also get a fresh look from the court, potentially throwing those elections into chaos.
In light of the court’s December ruling, the congressional maps are “lawless in the most literal sense,” the Elias Law Group argued.
“Failing to act will double down on a now-discredited legal principle and subject Wisconsin voters to a full decade under congressional maps that lack any basis in Wisconsin law,” the motion said.
Currently only the Madison-area seat held by U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Vermont, and the Milwaukee-area district represented by U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, are in Democratic hands, although seats in western and southeast Wisconsin are potentially competitive.
Pocan said in a statement that he supports the lawsuit, arguing that 'Wisconsin is a purple state, however, our current congressional district maps do not reflect that."
The motion asks the court to allow those involved in past challenges to the congressional maps to submit new lines.
But the timing would mean all involved would need to move quickly, as the Wisconsin Elections Commission has said it wants new state legislative lines in place by mid-March in order to prepare for the primary election. A similar timeframe would likely be needed for any new congressional maps.
