Michael Hernandez
March 31, 2022•Update: March 31, 2022
WASHINGTON
The US Supreme Court ruled last week that a state's legislative maps that would have increased the number of Black-majority assembly districts were unconstitutional.
The maps were put forward by Democratic Governor Tony Evers from Wisconsin and approved in a 4-3 ruling by the state’s Supreme Court. They increased Black-majority state assembly districts from six to seven and were opposed by state Republicans who said they were racially gerrymandered and appealed to the top court.
The federal Supreme Court tossed the maps in an unsigned order that said the state Supreme Court "failed to answer" the question of "whether a race-neutral alternative that did not add a seventh majority-black district would deny black voters equal political opportunity."
It said the rationale put forward by the lower court did not follow prior Supreme Court precedents in making its judgment, and therefore "cannot stand."
The Supreme Court sent the case back to Wisconsin's top court, which it said is "free to take additional evidence if it prefers to reconsider the Governor’s maps rather than choose from among the other submissions."
"Any new analysis, however, must comply with our equal protection jurisprudence," according to the court majority.
But with electoral candidates set to file documentation needed for this year's election by April 15, it is unclear how the process will unfold with unclear boundaries. The redistricting that led to the state’s assembly maps was based on data from the 2020 census.
Writing in dissent on her behalf and for Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court's decision "is unprecedented."
"This Court’s intervention today is not only extraordinary but also unnecessary," she wrote, adding that she would allow Wisconsin's electoral process "to unfold, rather than further complicating these proceedings with legal confusion through a summary reversal."
