Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:50 and sunset is 6:39, for 11 hours, 49 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 45.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 2005, John Roberts is confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States.
Two redistricting cases are now pending in Dane County Circuit Court: Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, No. 2025CV002252 (Wis. Cir. Ct. Dane Cnty. July 8, 2025) and Elizabeth Bothfeld et al. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, No. 2025CV002432 (Wis. Cir. Ct. Dane Cnty. July 21, 2025). The plaintiffs in those cases are asking for a three-judge panel to review the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s congressional maps.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has now ordered the parties to submit legal briefs in those cases:
The court issued its order in response to two requests asking justices to appoint a judicial panel to consider the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s congressional voting map ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The lawsuits were filed in circuit court in July by two liberal law firms. They asked the Supreme Court to appoint three-judge panels to decide whether Wisconsin’s congressional districts are unconstitutional. Until Thursday, the court hadn’t responded.
The three-judge panel concept was created by Republican state lawmakers in 2011 as a means to expedite redistricting challenges. Under that law, if parties in a circuit court case request the panel, the Supreme Court is required to appoint circuit court judges to sit on it. It also requires any appeal of the panel’s ruling to go directly to the Supreme Court.
This week, an attorney representing plaintiffs in one of those cases sent a letter to the Supreme Court stating a Dane County judge denied their request to set a briefing schedule in the case because doing so would violate the law passed by the Legislature more than a decade before.
On Thursday, the majority responded. Instead of appointing the judicial panel requested by the liberal firms, they ordered legal briefs arguing whether or not the lawsuits filed in Dane County constitute a valid “action to challenge the apportionment of a congressional or state legislative district.”The Wisconsin gubernatorial field for the August 2026 primary saw some changes over the last week.
See Rich Kremer, Wisconsin Supreme Court orders legal briefs in 2 congressional map challenges, Wisconsin Public Radio, September 25, 2025.
I’ll not venture a guess about how the Wisconsin Supreme Court might decide this question. It’s enough to see that they have agreed to address “whether Bothfeld’s complaint filed in the circuit court constitutes an ‘action to challenge the apportionment of a congressional or state legislative district’ under WIS. STAT. § 801.50(4m).”
See also Bothfeld v. Wis. Elections Comm’n, Order, 2025XX1438 (Wis. Sept. 25, 2025):
The New Zealand falcon, or Karearea, is crowned Bird of the Year: