The state Department of Justice asked Tuesday that a lawsuit filed last month over the 2011 state legislative district map be dismissed because the lawsuit presents a political question that the court cannot answer. The lawsuit was filed by a group of 12 Democrats from across Wisconsin, led by retired UW-Madison Law School professor William Whitford, and asks that the map’s boundaries be thrown out as “one of the worst gerrymanders in modern American history.”
In its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, DOJ lawyers wrote that no standard exists for measuring the burden a gerrymander places on the right to legislative representation, and that the one proposed in the lawsuit has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“There is no constitutional right for political groups to obtain a percentage of legislative seats corresponding to the percentage of votes their candidates earn statewide in legislative contests,” DOJ lawyers state in a brief supporting their motion to dismiss. “As a result, a districting plan does not become unconstitutional because it departs from partisan symmetry or results in more ‘wasted votes’ for the candidates of one party.”
Full Article: State DOJ seeks dismissal of gerrymandering lawsuit : Wsj.