Thursday, March 22, 2012
9:17 AM
Court finds lawmakers failed to create majority-minority Assembly district for Latinos, but leaves maps intact otherwise
A federal court this morning ruled Republicans failed to create a majority-minority Assembly seat for Milwaukee's Latino community and offered lawmakers the chance to tweak those lines.
But the court otherwise left intact the maps the GOP created last summer, ruling that while more than a million Wisconsinites were moved needlessly, "the resulting population deviations are not large enough to permit judicial intervention under the Supreme Court’s precedents."
The ruling enjoins the GAB from implementing the map in its current form.
The court stressed in the ruling that its ruling on Assembly districts 8 and 9 is not intended to affect any other seats. It added that re-drawing those lines must occur within the combined outer boundaries of those two seats to avoid impacting other districts.
The three-judge panel also gave lawmakers the first opportunity to address the districts, "but it must act quickly given the impending elections." Nomination papers for the fall elections can be circulated beginning in mid-April.
The court noted a UW-Madison poli sci professor who testified for the plaintiffs laid out an option of moving the lines so tweaking them "should not be an impossible task."
The panel also rejected a challenge to the congressional map Republicans drew that made the 7th CD more favorable to GOP freshman Rep. Sean Duffy.
-- By Staff
Election Blog site feed