Law firm challenges Wisconsin’s congressional maps, aims for new ones drawn before 2024 elections

In wake of the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturning the state’s legislative maps, a new lawsuit filed by Elias Law Group challenges the legitimacy of the state’s congressional maps as well.

Elias Law Group contends that the same precedent established in the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s legislative map ruling should apply to the congressional maps as well. The ruling struck down maps that were drawn by and heavily favored Republicans, and the new ones are expected to reduce Republican supermajorities in the state Assembly and Senate.

If the congressional maps are also overturned, the law firm hopes to have new ones drawn in time for the 2024 elections, when the terms of each of Wisconsin’s eight U.S. representatives will expire. There are currently six Republicans and two Democrats representing Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Wisconsin now has a 4-3 liberal majority on the state Supreme Court after voters elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz last April. When the redistricting case was taken up by the court, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) threatened to impeach Protasiewicz if she did not recuse herself from the case. Vos contended that Protasiewicz compromised her impartiality in the case when she called the maps rigged on the campaign trail. The panel Vos put together of former conservative justices advised against impeachment, and polling suggested that the majority of Wisconsinites did not support the move.