While the Republican-controlled Alabama legislature is defying the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw its Congressional district lines to stop discriminating against African American voters, Wisconsin is poised to reverse years of Republican mischief in its Congressional districting and its laws for reproductive choice for women through its newly progressive state Supreme Court. From the Associated Press:
"Wisconsin’s Supreme Court will flip from majority conservative to liberal control in August and Democrats have high hopes the change will lead to the state’s abortion ban being overturned and its maps redrawn to weaken GOP control of the Legislature and congressional districts.
Democrats in the perennial battleground state focused on abortion to elect a liberal majority to the court for the first time in 15 years. The Democratic Party spent $8 million to tilt the court’s 4-3 conservative majority by one seat with the election of Janet Protasiewicz, who spoke in favor of abortion rights and against the Republican-drawn map in a campaign. Her April victory broke national spending records for a state Supreme Court race." (our emphasis)
Women's reproductive rights was the key issue that gave Judge Protasiewicz her resounding victory, and a pre-Civil War law allegedly banning abortion is expected to be heard by the newly progressive court soon. The Wisconsin court is also expected to reconsider laws passed by the Republican legislature that aim at suppressing Dem votes through voter ID laws, and that essentially ended union rights for public workers.
Wisconsin is an important case study in the importance of off-year elections, especially elections for courts and local officials. The Republicans have spent years mobilizing to win those typically low-turnout elections which have big impacts on a state's policies and laws. The Dems need to repeat the Wisconsin model going forward.
(photo: Wisconsin Supreme Court chamber)
