(The Center Square) – A second three-judge panel in Wisconsin dismissed a challenge to the state’s congressional maps as gerrymandered on Tuesday.
The panel ruled that the state’s Supreme Court is the “ultimate interpreter” of the state constitution and that the challenge goes against the court’s prior interpretation that the maps were constitutional.
The ruling in Wisconsin Business Leaders For Democracy v. Wisconsin Elections Commission was consistent with the ruling of a separate three-judge panel in March.
Law Forward vowed Tuesday that it will appeal the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The motion to dismiss in the case ruled on Tuesday came from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. Will argued that the challenge asked the lower court to overrule the Wisconsin Supreme Court, that the challenges were filed too late and that the challenges lacked merit.
“Upon careful review of the law, the panel concludes that Intervenors are correct,” the panel wrote in its ruling. “The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that claims of the sort Plaintiffs allege are not actionable under Wisconsin law, and this panel, as an inferior tribunal exercising the powers of a circuit court, has no authority to modify or overrule that precedent.”
WILL had warned in early 2025 that challenges would come to the state’s maps following Judge Susan Crawford’s victory over Brad Schimel for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat that left the court with a liberal majority.
“The three-judge panel got it right,” WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber said in a statement. “This is a victory for the rule of law in our state. WILL is proud to have represented our clients in this case and will continue to work to uphold our constitutional separation of powers.”
“We are disappointed that after receiving the case from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the circuit court panel has declined to allow us to present evidence and legal arguments that we believe demonstrate the anti-competitive nature of Wisconsin’s congressional map and how it violates Wisconsin voters’ constitutional rights,” Doug Poland, Law Forward’s Director of Litigation, said in a statement. “This is the first anti-competitive gerrymandering case ever filed in Wisconsin courts, and it deserves to be heard. We believe that the circuit court was wrong in concluding that anti-competitive gerrymandering is “functionally equivalent” to partisan gerrymandering. They are different claims, based on different evidence, that target different ways of manipulating representation to the detriment of voters.”
