
Court's conservative majority also said it wouldn't weigh partisan fairness when considering political maps
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority handed Republicans a major victory in the legal fight over redistricting Tuesday, ruling that the court would take a “least changes” approach to redrawing the maps that Republicans passed in 2011.
The court’s majority also ruled that it wouldn’t consider the partisan makeup of districts in an effort to make them more fair, which is another win for Republicans who’ve held big majorities in the Legislature for the past decade under the current map, even in years when Democrats have performed well statewide.
Writing for the court’s conservative majority, Justice Rebecca Bradley argued that because the 2011 maps had been passed by the Legislature, signed by a governor and survived federal lawsuits, they were the proper place to start in any redistricting lawsuits. It didn’t matter, she argued, if those maps favored Republicans.