The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has given state Republicans a big win by refusing to hear a Democrat-led challenge to the state's congressional maps.
The Associated Press reports:
The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Democratic lawsuit that sought to throw out the battleground state’s congressional maps, marking a victory for Republicans who argued against the court taking up the case.
The situation, however, is not a complete victory for the state Republicans. But, it is definitely a victory.
To understand why, we have to look at how things recently played out.
Republicans in Wisconsin's legislature initially drew up their preferred congressional maps, but these maps ended up being thrown out. In December, the very same Wisconsin Supreme Court deemed these maps unconstitutional.
So, it was back to the drawing board for state Republicans.
Rather than attempt to draw up new maps that are constitutional, the Republicans, instead, decided to adopt the maps that had been drawn up by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers - a Democrat.
The Republicans did this because they feared that the court would, once again, reject the maps that they draw up, and, with the election drawing ever nearer, the Republicans feared being stuck with congressional maps that were highly favorable to the Democrats.
Accordingly, they just went with Evers' maps.
This makes it sound as though it is a win for Wisconsin Democrats. But, it is not.
The state Democrats actually wanted to try to get the court to explore other maps - maps that were more favorable to them than the Evers maps.
This is why the Democrats actually challenged the Republicans' adoption of the Evers maps, even though Evers is a Democrat. The state Democrats were hoping that the liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court would essentially award them a windfall, but the court said "no."
The Washington Examiner explains, "Though drawn by a Democrat, the current districts were supported by Republicans as the best-case scenario. The lawsuit, brought forward by a Democratic group, threatened to throw out those districts as unconstitutional, ensuring an even more unfavorable redistricting for Republicans."
State Republicans are now celebrating this ruling. National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said:
Mess around and find out. The DCCC and Marc Elias got their hands caught in the cookie jar attempting to rig the game to favor Democrats. It’s an open admission Democrats’ policies are too extreme to win fair and square in Wisconsin.
