Judges overturn GOP-drawn district maps in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. — Federal judges struck down Wisconsin’s Republicandrawn legislative districts as unconstitutional on Monday, marking a victory for minority Democrats that could force the Legislature to redraw the maps.

The ruling by a threejudge panel can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But it still provides hope for legislative Democrats who have been in the minority for six years and lost more ground in this month’s election. The judges didn’t order any immediate changes to district boundaries, instead saying they would accept ideas on what to do next within the next 30 days.

Republicans, who took full control of state government in the 2010 election, drew the maps in 2011 as part of redistricting required every 10 years. A dozen voters sued, arguing the maps unconstitutionally discriminated against Democrats by diluting their voting power.

Attorneys for the state said the redrawn districts simply reflected that Wisconsin was trending Republican, and argued there is no legal way to measure gerrymandering — the process of dividing districts to gain an unfair advantage.

The ruling came from a panel of three judges — U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kenneth Ripple and U.S. District Judge William Griesbach. Griesbach was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, Ripple by Republican President Ronald Reagan and Crabb by Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

During a four-day trial in May, the voters’ attorneys argued that the boundaries represented the worst example of gerrymandering in modern history. They said the maps aimed to marginalize Democrats by packing them into districts that already favored them.

One effect of the redistricting, according to plaintiff attorney Gerald Hebert, was to reduce the number of swing districts from 19 to 10. The voters also noted that under the new maps in 2012, Republicans won 60 of 99 Assembly seats even though Democrats won a majority of the statewide vote.

The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to come up with a legal standard for deciding when redistricting becomes unconstitutional gerrymandering.