Supreme Court hearing unlikely to arrive in time for fall elections

By Ryan Broege, Editor –

As Wisconsin approaches Spring elections a week from Tuesday, an upcoming court decision from the U.S. Su-preme Court could change elections not only in this state, but across the country.

Last October, the Supreme Court heard Gill vs. Whitford, a case arising out of the 2011 redistricting undergone by Republicans after their 2010 sweep of Wisconsin legislative races. In the wake of that victory, Republicans redrew Wisconsin voting districts.

Democrats argued the dis-tricts were drawn so unfairly that it constituted a violation of Democrats’ Fourteenth Amendment right to protection. The question at the heart of the case is whether Wisconsin was redistricted in such a way that one person did not count for one vote, according to a post written last fall by Amy Howe at the ScotusBlog web site, a reporting outfit that reports on the Supreme Court.

“The main issue is whether or not the way State legislative lines were redrawn violates the Constitution in terms of Equal Protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment,” said Dr. David Canon, Professor and Leon Epstein Faculty Fellow at UW-Madison.

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