On Friday, after the Wisconsin Supreme Court gave the state the best Christmas gift ever -- Democracy. But not everyone was merry and bright this holiday weekend.
Wisconsin Speaker and Official Grinch Robin Vos threw a pity party and threatened revenge:
On Tuesday, repeated his threat to take it up with the Supreme Court, that had the right kind of corruption that he prefers.
But as Jessie Opoien and Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report, SCOTUS might not have cause to take the case, no matter how much Vos tantrums:
The case brought to the court argued the maps violate Wisconsin's Constitution because some legislative districts include pieces of land that are not connected.
"The Wisconsin Supreme Court has the last word on state law questions," Yablon said.
A request for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a state Supreme Court decision (or a federal appeals court decision) is known as a petition for certiorari, or cert petition. Under U.S. Supreme Court rules, four of nine justices must vote to accept such a case.
"(The majority) did a really intentional job of sticking to very narrow state constitutional issues, which has the effect of insulating a lot of the decision from U.S. Supreme Court review," said Daniel Suhr, a Republican attorney who served in former Gov. Scott Walker's administration. "When a case is decided on only state constitutional grounds, there's not a U.S. constitutional hook for the Supreme Court to rely on in intervening."
The report goes on to state different scenarios where SCOTUS might be able to take the case but each one more of a stretch than the last.
One of the scenarios of note is that SCOTUS has been getting involved with cases that involve racial balances. Apparently, the majority of SCOTUS, being the good Republicans that they are, don't want anything that might allow minorities to have a voice in government. However, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took steps to address that by also ordering two respected redistricting experts to examine the proposed maps to make sure they follow the law. Hopefully that will suffice to keep the corrupt higher court from interferring.
