Important note: According to wispolitics, Wisconsin GOP’s key longtime legal lackey James Troupis will be forced to answer questions about his involvement in creating redistricting maps in a deposition either today or March 12 or March 19 per an order from Judge Stadtmueller.
From Post Crescent:
“Attorneys for Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin on Tuesday said state law prevents them from revisiting new elections maps they passed last year, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already confusing federal trial over whether the maps are constitutional.
Democrats and an immigrant-rights group [ Voces de la Frontera ] are challenging the maps, which Republicans developed in secret and passed in a GOP-led Legislature. The plaintiffs are suing the state Government Accountability Board to prevent it from conducting elections based on the new maps.
A trial on the case was set to begin Tuesday morning. However, a panel of three federal judges instead asked both sides to spend the day determining whether lawmakers would consider drawing new maps that would address the plaintiff’s concerns. Presiding Judge J.P. Stadtmueller explained the request by citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court case that said redistricting is best left up to the lawmakers, not judges.
Defense attorneys came back in the late afternoon and said Republican lawmakers would have been happy to revisit the issue except for one impediment: the state Constitution. Attorney Daniel Kelly said a 1954 ruling by the state Supreme Court established that new voter maps can be drawn only once every 10 years, to avert a never-ending stream of calls for fresh changes.
An attorney for the plaintiffs disagreed. State law only requires that new voter maps be completed in the first legislative session, attorney Douglas Poland said, and this first legislative session hasn’t ended…”
More at PostCrescent
Voces de la Frontera is the key plaintiff in this lawsuit.
blue cheddar 