A federal court will draw the district lines for two Assembly districts after legislators decided against holding a special session to redraw the maps.
On Tuesday, three federal judges ruled to redraw election maps for two Milwaukee Assembly districts. In doing so, the court ordered the state and the groups suing it to deliberate in the coming days and to try to reach an agreement on how to reconstruct the borders.
If a consensus cannot be reached, both sides will have to file competing maps for the court to consider by next Tuesday, according to the court order.
Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a joint statement the court has affirmed 130 of 132 districts and every congressional district the Republican Party drew is constitutional.
“We will work with the Department of Justice to submit an alternative map that ensures the 8th and 9th districts meet the constitutionality already met by the rest of the districts,” they said in the statement.
According to Andy Janssen, spokesperson for Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa, D-Milwaukee, a representative for one of the districts affected by the change, Republicans have refused to come back into session to fix the violations of the Voting Rights Act as it pertains to the two districts.
He said it is not up to any member of the Legislature to implement changes and the court will draw the lines in consultation with the plaintiff and defense attorneys.
Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Mike McCabe said with the recall elections on the horizon, it is important to note that the border controversy will not affect them. He said the recall elections will be conducted under the old political boundaries.
“The federal court has issued an injunction barring the Government Accountability Board from implementing the maps, but how long that injunction is in place is up to the court,” McCabe said. “GAB had been operating under the assumption that the new maps would be implemented for this fall’s elections. That may be up in the air now because of the court injunction.”
Every 10 years, states must draw new congressional and legislative districts to account for ever-changing shifts in population. Consequently, this may give one party an advantage over the other, Janssen said.
He said since the Republican Party was in the majority when the Legislature drew the maps last year, some claimed the borders were unfairly determined.
The challenges were originally brought up by a group of Democrats and the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera. Parts of the redistricting plans passed by the Legislature were ruled to have violated the VRA by diluting the voting powers of Latinos in two Milwaukee Assembly districts.
The new boundaries must comply with the applicable provisions found in the VRA, the U.S. Constitution and the Wisconsin Constitution.
Based on the rules detailed in the VRA, borders must be redrawn for the two districts so the 8th Assembly district has a Latino citizen voting age population of at least 60 percent, according to the statement.
