MADISON – Lawyers seeking to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional districts are asking the state’s highest court to consider the matter on an expedited schedule in an effort to put new maps in place by the 2028 election.
The liberal firm Law Forward and the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, representing the group Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, filed a motion April 29 asking the state Supreme Court to hasten its consideration of the group’s appeal filed after a three-judge panel dismissed its challenge to Wisconsin’s congressional maps.
Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy “seeks only to have its fair day in Court and to do so in a way that preserves the possibility that, if it can prove that its claims are meritorious, a remedy can be implemented in time for the 2028 congressional elections,” attorneys wrote in a motion filed April 29.
Republicans currently hold six of Wisconsin’s eight congressional seats.
The motion urges the state Supreme Court to consider the appeal before the current term concludes at the end of June and decide whether to send the case back to the judicial panel.
A panel of three circuit court judges, led by Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway, ruled this week that it has no authority to act on the claims without further input from the state Supreme Court. A separate three-judge panel last month rejected a parallel case on similar grounds.
The plaintiffs have presented a novel legal theory contending that the state’s current maps amount to an “anti-competitive gerrymander.” They argue the maps’ design create a predetermined outcome that insulates incumbents and discourages candidates from running for office and voters from participating in elections.
The lawsuit was also one of two that invoked for the first time a 2011 state law that requires actions “to challenge the apportionment of any congressional or state legislative district” to be heard by a panel appointed by the state Supreme Court.
The state’s high court issued orders Nov. 25 under that law appointing judicial panels for each of the two cases.
In December 2025, the panel led by Conway determined that if the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy case moved forward to a trial, it would take place in April 2027 – allowing for new maps to be implemented in time for the 2028 congressional elections should the lawsuit succeed.
“By adjudicating the justiciability of [this case] promptly, this Court can either bring an end to the long-running saga over congressional districts or clarify the governing law so that the three-judge panel can do the job this Court appointed it to do: adjudicate the merits,” attorneys argued.
Attorneys argue the three-judge panel was wrong to determine the lawsuit’s anti-competitive gerrymandering claim is “functionally equivalent” to partisan gerrymandering claims based on its findings in the 2022 redistricting case that resulted in the current set of maps.
If the circuit court’s conclusion holds, Wisconsin voters would be deprived of “any legal remedy for the deprivation of their right to vote caused by the gerrymandered congressional districts,” the attorneys wrote.
“Every day that the current congressional districts remain in place perpetuates an unconstitutional anti-competitive gerrymander that denies Wisconsin voters their fundamental rights to meaningfully participate in the electoral process and our representative democracy,” attorneys wrote.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys proposed a schedule that would culminate in oral arguments before the state Supreme Court on May 19 or 21.
Jessie Opoien can be reached at jessie.opoien@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Group seeks to fast-track redistricting case to Wisconsin Supreme Court
Reporting by Jessie Opoien, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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