STRUCK DOWN

Federal Judges: Wisconsin’s Gerrymander Unconstitutional

GOP-drawn districts are unfair, feds say.

A legislative redistricting map of Wisconsin, drawn up in 2011, is unconstitutional, a panel of federal judges ruled on Monday. The maps, which outlined new state Assembly districts, were found to be an unfair act of gerrymandering, designed to favor state Republicans. The ruling could set a precedent in other gerrymandering cases, where the fairness of electoral maps is under dispute. "One of the purposes of Act 43 was to secure Republican control of the Assembly under any likely future electoral scenario for the remainder of the decade, in other words to entrench the Republican party in power," Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple wrote in an opinion.