By: Riley Vetterkind
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday declined a request from Republicans to adopt new redistricting rules meant to keep litigation over drawing the state’s next political maps before the state’s highest court.
The decision, handed down via an unsigned order, represents a defeat for Republicans as Wisconsin lawmakers gear up to draw the state’s next set of 10-year maps in a political environment that is already more difficult for the GOP given they have lost control of the governor’s office since the last map-drawing process a decade ago.
“The court determined that, as drafted, the procedures proposed in this administrative rule petition are unlikely to materially aid this court’s consideration of an as yet undefined future redistricting challenge, and voted to deny the petition,” the court said. In the decision, however, justices said the denial of the petition doesn’t predict whether the court would bypass lower courts to take up a redistricting case, or to review a lower court’s decision on a redistricting matter.