A law firm at Madison, Wisconsin, will file a lawsuit in the state supreme court that aims to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps. The case, which will come before the court’s new liberal majority, could give Democrats a big advantage in winning back the U.S. House next year. 

The firm, Law Forward, announced in a press release that it would file suit on Wednesday. “In the past 12 years, one political party captured the Legislature and has insulated itself from being answerable to the voters,” the board president of Law Forward, Jeff Mandell, said in a statement. 

“Despite the fact that our legislative branch is meant to be the most directly representative of the people, the gerrymandered maps have divided our communities, preventing fair representation,” Mr. Mandell continued. “This has eroded confidence in our political system, suppressed competitive elections, skewed policy outcomes, and undermined democratic representation.”

“We have endured 12 years of rule by right-wing interests, and the voters of Wisconsin deserve fair representation,” he said.

The petition to hear the case was also signed by the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, as well as other private firms. 

“The extreme partisan gerrymander in Wisconsin hurts its voters and is unconstitutional,” the director of Harvard’s Election Law Clinic, Ruth Greenwood, said. “No voter should be favored or disfavored based on their political viewpoints. We look forward to litigating this case in favor of fairer maps and equal representation for all Wisconsinites.”

The press release states that the lawsuit will challenge the “extreme partisan gerrymander that violates various parts of the Wisconsin Constitutions,” such as freedom of speech, guarantee of equality, and the promise of a “free government.” 

The lawsuit comes after a landmark decision from the United States Supreme Court in June, Moore v. Harper, which held that state courts have the power to review legislative maps drawn by the legislatures themselves. The case rejected the so-called independent state legislature theory advanced by many conservatives, who argued that only legislatures and no other entity beyond those elected officials could draw the district maps. 

Now, bolstered by Supreme Court precedent, the Wisconsin supreme court has the power to review the maps that have bedeviled state and national Democrats for more than a decade. 

The lawsuit comes just one day after a new justice was seated on the state supreme court. Justice Janet Protasiewicz won her seat on the court in April, shifting the balance of the court to four liberals and three conservatives from four conservatives and three liberals. Justice Patience Roggensack, a conservative stalwart of the bench for 20 years, retired from the court rather than run for re-election. 

Justice Protasiewicz defeated Justice Daniel Kelly, who was appointed to the bench in 2016 but lost re-election in 2020. During the campaign, Justice Protasiewicz made national headlines for openly declaring her personal and would-be judicial opinions on issues like redistricting and abortion. “I say, yes, those maps are rigged,” the justice told PBS Wisconsin during the campaign. She also ran advertisements painting Justice Kelly as a virulent opponent of abortion rights. 

“She believes women should have the freedom to make their own decision on abortion,” the television ad from her campaign said. “Extremist Dan Kelly? He supports the 1849 law that takes away women’s rights and criminalizes abortion.”

Should the Wisconsin supreme court choose to draw the legislative maps itself, as happened in North Carolina, or appoint a “special master” to take over the process, as happened in New York last year, the outcome could shift the balance of power both at Madison and at Washington, D.C., in favor of the Democratic Party. 

Currently, the maps skew heavily in favor of Republicans. Last year, GOP candidates for the U.S. House won 55 percent of the statewide vote but 75 percent of the available House seats. In the 2018 state assembly elections, Democratic candidates won 53 percent of the statewide vote but just 36 of the 99 seats in the lower chamber.