A three-judge panel in Wisconsin threw out a lawsuit seeking to redraw the state's congressional districts, ruling Tuesday that lower courts have no authority to second-guess the maps, the second time in two months a panel has reached the same conclusion. The decision keeps district lines in place that give Republicans a 6, 2 advantage in the state's U.S. House delegation heading into the 2026 midterms.
The 13-page ruling, issued by Judges David Conway of Dane County Circuit Court, Michael Moran of Marathon County Circuit Court, and Patricia Baker of Portage County Circuit Court, cited a binding 2022 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision holding that the "partisan composition of electoral districts raises a non-justiciable political question." As an "inferior court," the panel wrote, it was "obligated to obey" that precedent.
That makes two panels, two dismissals, and zero paths forward for Democrats trying to use the courts to reshape Wisconsin's congressional map before voters go to the polls next year.
The coalition behind the lawsuit, led by the Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, filed its challenge last July and asked the panel to declare the congressional map unconstitutional. The judges declined, not because they endorsed the map, but because they said the law gave them no room to act.
As The Hill reported, the panel stated plainly in its ruling:
"The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that claims of the sort Plaintiffs allege are not actionable under Wisconsin law, and this panel, as an inferior tribunal exercising the powers of a circuit court, has no authority to modify or overrule that precedent."
The judges added: "This panel is left with no option but to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims."
A separate three-judge panel reached a nearly identical conclusion last month when it dismissed a different challenge to the same map. That earlier panel, as Newsmax reported, made clear it was not endorsing the current lines, only acknowledging that circuit-level judges lack the authority to order new ones.
The backstory matters. After the 2020 census, Wisconsin's GOP-controlled legislature drafted new congressional maps. Governor Tony Evers vetoed them. The resulting impasse landed at the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which drew the current congressional boundaries in 2022.
At the time, conservatives held a majority on the state's high court. That majority has since flipped to liberals. Democrats hoped the shift would open the door to new, more favorable maps, and they had reason for optimism after the same court struck down Republican-drawn state legislative maps and ordered replacements.
But the court did not extend that intervention to congressional districts. As Breitbart reported, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear Democrats' lawsuit challenging the congressional maps, leaving the existing lines in place. Governor Evers expressed disappointment, saying in a statement posted on X: "I'm disappointed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision not to review our congressional maps to make sure those are fair, too."
That refusal at the top is what locked the lower courts into their current position. Without the state Supreme Court revisiting its 2022 holding, circuit-level judges have no legal basis to act, a point both three-judge panels have now made explicit.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon called Tuesday's ruling a "significant win" for the GOP.
"By keeping Wisconsin's current district lines in place for 2026, Republicans are in a strong position to build on our momentum to retain and grow our House majority."
The Hill reached out to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for comment. No response was noted.
The stakes are real. Wisconsin sends six Republicans and two Democrats to the U.S. House. The Cook Political Report rates seven of those eight seats as likely or solidly in the hands of the incumbent party. The lone exception: GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden's seat, which Cook calls a "Toss Up."
Democrats have argued that the map itself is the problem. The Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University gave Wisconsin's congressional map an "F" rating, saying it affords Republicans a "significant" advantage. The same project gave the state's House and Senate legislative maps, the ones redrawn after the court's intervention, an "A" rating.
That contrast is the heart of the Democratic grievance. They got the state legislative maps they wanted but failed to get the congressional lines redrawn. And now two lower-court panels have told them the same thing: take it up with the Supreme Court, because we can't help you.
The pattern of courts rebuffing partisan redistricting efforts extends well beyond Wisconsin. In Virginia, a judge ruled a redistricting referendum unconstitutional in what amounted to a significant GOP legal win, underscoring that judges across the country are drawing lines around what courts will and will not do when asked to intervene in map-drawing disputes.
Both Wisconsin rulings can be appealed. The obvious destination would be the state Supreme Court, which now has a liberal majority. But that same court already declined to hear a direct challenge to the congressional maps, making any appeal a long shot at best.
Even if the court agreed to take up the question, the timeline is brutal. Redrawing maps, holding new primaries, and getting candidates on ballots requires months of lead time. Every week that passes without action makes it harder for any new lines to take effect before 2026.
Similar redistricting battles have played out in other states with high national stakes. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court and allowed Texas to keep its GOP-friendly congressional map, a reminder that legal challenges to district lines face steep odds even when they clear the first hurdle.
Rep. Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, framed the situation as an injustice. "It's good that Wisconsin has fair maps at the state level, but we deserve them at the federal level as well," Pocan said, as the Washington Examiner reported. "Unfortunately, gerrymandered maps for members of Congress will remain in Wisconsin."
"Deserve" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. What Pocan means is that Democrats wanted a friendlier map and didn't get one, not through one lawsuit, not through two, and not through a direct petition to the state's highest court.
The broader Democratic strategy of using courts to redraw maps they cannot change through the legislature has hit a wall in Wisconsin. Eric Holder has defended Democratic redistricting efforts in Virginia while accusing Republicans of rigging maps elsewhere, but the Wisconsin results suggest that even sympathetic courts have limits on how far they will go.
The practical effect of Tuesday's ruling is straightforward. Wisconsin's congressional map stays as drawn. Republicans hold the structural advantage they have held since 2022. Democrats will need to win competitive races on the existing lines, or find a legal argument that has eluded them three times running.
The Van Orden seat remains the most closely watched race in the state. If Democrats flip it, they will have done so despite the map, not because a court redrew it for them. That is how elections are supposed to work.
Courts across the country have increasingly pushed back on attempts to use judicial power to reshape electoral maps outside the legislative process. Wisconsin's two dismissals fit that pattern. Judges are telling litigants what they do not want to hear: the courthouse is not a backup legislature.
Two panels. Thirteen pages. One clear message: if you want different maps, win elections and draw them yourself.