The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a seismic blow to Wisconsin’s political landscape this week by ruling racial gerrymandering unconstitutional, setting the stage for sweeping changes to local district maps across the state.
The conservative-majority Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map that included a second majority-minority district, deciding that no state can use race as the primary factor when drawing political districts. This decision has immediate and far-reaching consequences in Wisconsin where race was explicitly used to shape many electoral boundaries.
Dan Lennington, managing vice president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), explained the impact bluntly: “Any electoral district anywhere in America drawn with race in mind (or to ‘comply with Voting Rights Act’) is likely unconstitutional.”
Lennington identified Milwaukee as ground zero for imminent change, highlighting that most of its aldermanic districts were explicitly drawn based on race with extensive official records to prove it. The ruling could extend this overhaul beyond city politics to include school board districts statewide.
“This decision effectively closes the door to the Voting Rights Act disparate-impact type litigation and opens the door to the 14th Amendment ‘no race’ plaintiffs,” Lennington said on social media platform X.
The ruling’s repercussions don’t stop at Milwaukee. The decision applies broadly to cities, counties, legislative districts, and school boards that used race as a factor to preserve or ensure minority representation.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s federal congressional map remains in legal flux. Two lawsuits currently seek to redraw the map to grant Democrats two additional seats. WILL is actively involved in these challenges. Earlier this week, a three-judge panel dismissed one such lawsuit, but whether the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court will intervene remains uncertain.
What happens next for Wisconsin’s local districts is now a pressing question. The state must reckon with courts’ direction to abandon race as a basis in district design, potentially rewriting decades of established political boundaries and altering minority representation strategies.
For Colorado and the rest of the country, this ruling signals shifting legal standards with significant effects on electoral fairness debates nationwide. As more states assess their own maps, Wisconsin’s experience may become a bellwether for how the Supreme Court’s ruling reshapes local and congressional politics across the United States.
Stay with The Colorado Daily as this story develops and new redistricting plans emerge in Wisconsin and beyond.
