If the gentle reader will recall, the Wisconsin Supreme Court gave the state a humungous Christmas present in the form of a ruling declaring the Republican gerrymandered redistricting maps as being illegal. They also ordered a very tight timeline for the new maps to be drawn and in place by November 2024.
Per the court order, maps were submitted by Governor Tony Evers, legislative Republicans, legislative Democrats, the plaintiffs via their law firm Law Forward, the Bradley Foundation-funded Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) and intervenors in favor of the plaintiffs.
Per the court, these proposed maps were analyzed and evaluated by two independent redistricting experts. Late on Thursday, they submitted their report to the Court. The good news is that the maps submitted by the plainiffs, the governor, the legislative Democrats and the intervenors were essential identical and fit the parameters set forth by the Court.
The better news is that the experts found that the map submitted by WILL looked good on the surface, but showed a heavy partisan favor for Republicans and was deemed to be "stealth gerrymandering."
The best news is that the map submitted by the Republicans was deemed to be grossly partisan gerrymandered and "does not deserve any further consideration."
Needless to say, the people are overjoyed, a feeling which was best expressed by Evers:
“This report plainly affirms for Wisconsinites what we’ve said all along: the maps Republicans submitted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court are nothing more than a partisan gerrymander.
“The days of Wisconsinites living under some of the most gerrymandered maps in the country are numbered. While this is just one step in this process, today is an important day for the people of Wisconsin who deserve maps that are fair, responsive, and reflect the will of the people.”
On the other end of the political spectrum, Rick Esenberg, president of the fascist WILL, sounded more like a petulant child who had a mouth full of sour grapes:
After the report’s release, WILL president Rick Esenberg attacked the consultants as partisans.
“The report hides its bias behind a fog of faux sophistication,” he said in a statement. “Let’s be clear, our maps have been rejected for one reason and one reason alone, they don’t produce the partisan outcomes the experts or many on the Court want. So, they ignore all the traditional tests for partisan bias. It is what Chief Justice Roberts has called social science gobbledygook: Obfuscation that hides one’s preferences so that it needn’t be justified.”
Translated to English, it roughly comes across as "Waaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
But despite the performative theatrics from the right, they must have known that they were about to get called out. Why else would Robin Vos have thrown that legislative Hail Mary last week to make the lawsuit a moot point?
