The Wisconsin Supreme Court is poised to weigh in on a high-stakes challenge to the state’s congressional districts after a three-judge panel tossed a lawsuit alleging the maps represent an unconstitutional “anti-competitive gerrymander” that stifles voter choice and entrenches Republican advantages.
In a 13-page order issued April 28, Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway, Marathon County Circuit Judge Michael Moran and Portage County Circuit Judge Patricia Baker ruled that claims of excessive partisanship in the maps raise non-justiciable political questions under existing precedent. The panel concluded it lacked authority to override a 2022 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that adopted the current map under a “least change” standard from prior boundaries.
The lawsuit, brought by Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy and represented by the progressive legal group Law Forward, argued the eight-district map violates the state constitution by deliberately minimizing competitive races.
“This is the first anti-competitive gerrymandering case ever filed in Wisconsin courts, and it deserves to be heard,” said Doug Poland, Law Forward’s director of litigation, following the dismissal. The group promptly appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, as required by a 2011 statute governing challenges to legislative and congressional maps.
An second panel convened by the Supreme Court to hear another lawsuit challenging the Congressional map also dismissed it, citing the same 2022 precedent.
Wisconsin’s current congressional boundaries emerged from a 2022 state Supreme Court intervention after Gov. Tony Evers and Republican legislators deadlocked. The Court selected a map proposed by Evers, which has been in place ever since.
That map will be in place for the 2026 midterm elections, as candidate nomination petitions are due Monday for races in those congressional districts. If the Supreme Court revives the lawsuit and strikes down the current map, a new one could be drawn in time for the 2028 and 2030 elections.
The 2030 Census will result in a new set of maps drawn in 2031 that would take effect in the 2032 election.
