A challenge to what 12 Democratic voters claim is “one of the worst partisan gerrymanders in American history” is headed to trial in Wisconsin next month. The voters sued the individual members of Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board in 2015, claiming that Republican lawmakers secretly crafted and hurriedly passed a redistricting plan that would give them overwhelming – and unfair – control of the state legislature. The Government Accountability Board oversees election activity in the state. However, the panel is in the process of being dismantled as the result of reforms signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker in December. In June it will be replaced with new elections and ethics commissions. On Dec. 17, 2015, a three-judge district court panel denied defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, concluding the plaintiffs’ allegations were sufficient to state a plausible claim. The defendants then filed a motion for summary judgment, which the three-judge panel denied (pdf) on Thursday.
“Defendants raise many important points in their summary judgment submissions,” says the opinion signed by U.S. District Judges Barbara Crabb and William Greisbach, and Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple. “It may be that one or more of these objections carries the day in the end.”
“However, we believe that deciding the case now as a matter of law would be premature because there are factual disputes regarding the validity of plaintiffs’ proposed measurement for determining the existence of a constitutional violation.” The judges also rejected the plaintiffs’ request to exclude the opinions of one of the defendants’ expert witnesses.
The joint rulings set the stage for a trial now scheduled to begin on Tuesday, May 24. In placing the trial on the court calendar, the judges said the parties should be prepared for it to last just four days. Federal law requires that a three-judge panel to hear redistricting cases, and the tight timeframe was mandates to accommodate scheduling conflicts, the judges said.
Full Article: Controversies – Wisconsin Gerrymandering Case Going to Trial – AllGov – News.