Liberal Court Is Poised to Save Democracy in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has heard opening arguments in a court case about the state’s absurdly pro-Republican gerrymandered voting maps. With the court’s liberal majority, it is increasingly likely that the maps will be struck down.

Today’s arguments lasted approximately three hours and were reportedly tense, particularly on the part of the court’s three conservative justices.

“Everybody knows that the reason we’re here is because there was a change in the membership of the court,” said Rebecca Bradley, one of the right wing jurists.

She bluntly asked attorneys representing the 19 Democratic voters who filed suit: “You would not have brought this action—right?—if the newest justice had lost?”

The newest justice in question, Janet Protasiewicz, is a liberal who won a landslide election against a Trump supporter back in April.

During her campaign, she referred to the state’s voting maps as “rigged” and was subsequently targeted by Republican politicians in the Wisconsin legislature for potential impeachment in the event she declined to recuse herself from any case challenging the maps.

Protasiewicz refused and Republicans eventually backed down after an intense public pressure campaign and urges from even conservative judicial scholars.

In the event the court orders that new maps be drawn, every member of the Wisconsin legislature would be up for reelection in 2024 and many of them would very likely have to campaign in new districts.

Wisconsin’s current voting maps are considered by election experts to be among the most heavily gerrymandered in the country, allowing Republicans to utterly dominate the legislature for a decade, despite Wisconsin’s purple electorate.