Conservatives intervene in Wisconsin's mid-decade redistricting push as House majority hangs in the balance

Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court's liberal majority ordered two three-judge panels to take up lawsuits alleging the state's congressional map gives Republicans an unconstitutional advantage, as redistricting fights intensify nationwide ahead of next year's midterms.

On behalf of a group of Wisconsin voters, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed motions to intervene this week, arguing the challenges are time-barred and that the newly appointed panel does not have the authority to overrule the state Supreme Court's earlier decision approving the current congressional lines.

"Revisiting congressional lines this way, less than a year before the election, sows irreparable distrust in our country's political process," WILL Deputy Counsel Lucas Vebber told Fox News Digital. "We intervened on behalf of several Wisconsin voters to argue that overturning the current maps in this manner and imposing new ones would violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution."

WILL's motions dispute the plaintiffs' characterizations of Wisconsin's congressional map as a "partisan gerrymander" or "anti-competitive."

According to WILL, these motions represent the fourth and fifth time the conservative law firm has defended Wisconsin's congressional maps in court.

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted the state's current congressional map drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2022 following the 2020 census, WILL said that should have been "the end to the legal and political posturing until the 2030 census." 

Instead, the group said various organizations have repeatedly attempted to challenge the map using "a variety of legal theories."