(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court sent a pair of challenges to the state’s congressional maps to three-judge panels Tuesday.
One was a challenge from Elizabeth Bothfeld in Dane County Court and the other was from the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy and a group of individual voters.
Both cases argue that Wisconsin’s current maps were gerrymandered and created in an unconstitutional way.
The Bothfeld case will be review by a group including Dane County Judge Julie Genovese, Milwaukee County Judge Mark Sanders and Outagamie County Judge Emily Lonergan.
Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote that he agreed with appointing a three-judge panel but did not agree with how that panel was selected.
He argued that a randomly selected panel would be better.
“These statutes are transparently designed to prevent forum shopping in disputes over where congressional lines should be drawn,” Hagedorn wrote. “To avoid litigants simply choosing their preferred venue and judge, the statute requires the appointment of a three-judge panel with each judge coming from a different judicial circuit, and then requires that venue be assigned to one of those circuits.”
The second case will be determined by a panel including Dane County Judge David Conway, Portage County Judge Patricia Baker and Marathon County Judge Michael Moran.
In that case, Justice Annette Ziegler argued against sending the case to a panel.
“The majority not only undermines our constitutional authority and circumvents established redistricting precedent but also, again, usurps the legislature’s constitutional power,” Ziegler wrote. “In allowing this litigation to proceed, the majority abdicates its constitutional superintending authority to Wisconsin’s circuit courts.”
Ziegler wrote that there are 260 circuit court justices in the state and they received no information on why the specific judges were selected but offered that half of those selected were appointed by Gov. Tony Evers.
“Hand picking circuit court judges to perform political maneuvering is unimaginable,” Ziegler wrote. “Yet, my colleagues persist and appear to do this, all in furtherance of delivering partisan, political advantage to the Democratic Party.”
